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In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History
Six contemporary historians trace the development of distinctive cultural, political, and social institutions in Southeast Asia.
- GenresHistory
608 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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102 people want to read
About the author
David P. Chandler
42 books27 followersDavid P. Chandler is an American historian and one of the foremost western scholars of Cambodia's modern history.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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January 8, 2008Nice overview of Southeast Asia, primarily after 1900 with an emphasis on the Post WWII period when most of these nation states formed. Good general stuff I read years ago when I first visited the Philippines. Very dry and academic. Far too much has gone in in the last two decades to read this book, which I'm sure is quite dated by now.
January 6, 2010
Goddamit its got a lot of good information. But man is it slow. Got what I needed but no reread.
January 28, 2023
I found this to be a useful introduction to the nations of the region, as well as the commonalities and varieties of the whole.
August 6, 2013
I had a bit of difficulty keeping interested in this book; it mixes region-wide topics with country-specific ones, and is written by a collection of authors. This may have contributed.
June 25, 2023
Written in the 1970s and revised in the 1980s, this book attempts to paint a history of a profoundly diverse region in under 500 pages. The task of writing such a volume that is comprehensive, engaging, and unified in its narrative was, unfortunately too much for this volume.
If there is one common theme in In Search Of, it is how colonialism affected the region's history, and how the countries in the region managed the transition to post-colonial societies after the abrupt end following World War 2. Unfortunately, this means that a LOT of great material was left on the cutting room floor. Dynastic histories of Vietnam, the expansion of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam throughout the region, the rise and fall of the civilization that built Angkor Wat, etc. Instead, much of the book details the expansion of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States (Portugal got a couple sentences, if that, about their role in East Timor), and how those societies evolved under colonial rule. We get a LOT about the Netherlands in Indonesia. We get very little about the Konfrontasi policy of Sukarno in the 1960s. We get good details about France's expansion into Indochina, but barely anything about the Khmer Rouge or the development of Vietnamese politics under the Communist Party. No Thai palace intrigue? No anecdotes of Singaporean social control? We need more flavor than this book offers.
None of that would, however, cause this book to lose stars. Where it does fall short is that the book is overly academic in tone, and there are very few 'through lines' among the Southeast Asian countries. We get a lot of chapters about the developments in Thailand, or Indonesia, or Philippines, but the chapters feel like isolated elements rather than part of a broader narrative. That made this book, at times, a tedious read.
I will cut the authors some slack, though. Writing about Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s was not the most hopeful time for the region. The Philippines was reeling from corrupt political scandals, Vietnam was occupying Cambodia, Burma was (like now) under military rule, Malaysia and Singapore were doing well, but Indonesia was a large resource exporter that was brutally occupying East Timor. ASEAN, critically important for understanding how the region works today, got little mention at all. China was barely mentioned at all. The current dynamics that underpin the region make the focus of In Search Of feel extremely dated, and as such it should be seen as a snapshot of a fascinating region in a tenuous moment of time through the lens of the rise and fall of colonialism. Unless you are hae a deep interest int eh region, I would recommend skipping this one.
If there is one common theme in In Search Of, it is how colonialism affected the region's history, and how the countries in the region managed the transition to post-colonial societies after the abrupt end following World War 2. Unfortunately, this means that a LOT of great material was left on the cutting room floor. Dynastic histories of Vietnam, the expansion of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam throughout the region, the rise and fall of the civilization that built Angkor Wat, etc. Instead, much of the book details the expansion of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States (Portugal got a couple sentences, if that, about their role in East Timor), and how those societies evolved under colonial rule. We get a LOT about the Netherlands in Indonesia. We get very little about the Konfrontasi policy of Sukarno in the 1960s. We get good details about France's expansion into Indochina, but barely anything about the Khmer Rouge or the development of Vietnamese politics under the Communist Party. No Thai palace intrigue? No anecdotes of Singaporean social control? We need more flavor than this book offers.
None of that would, however, cause this book to lose stars. Where it does fall short is that the book is overly academic in tone, and there are very few 'through lines' among the Southeast Asian countries. We get a lot of chapters about the developments in Thailand, or Indonesia, or Philippines, but the chapters feel like isolated elements rather than part of a broader narrative. That made this book, at times, a tedious read.
I will cut the authors some slack, though. Writing about Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s was not the most hopeful time for the region. The Philippines was reeling from corrupt political scandals, Vietnam was occupying Cambodia, Burma was (like now) under military rule, Malaysia and Singapore were doing well, but Indonesia was a large resource exporter that was brutally occupying East Timor. ASEAN, critically important for understanding how the region works today, got little mention at all. China was barely mentioned at all. The current dynamics that underpin the region make the focus of In Search Of feel extremely dated, and as such it should be seen as a snapshot of a fascinating region in a tenuous moment of time through the lens of the rise and fall of colonialism. Unless you are hae a deep interest int eh region, I would recommend skipping this one.
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August 29, 2020As an undergraduate, all of this information was brand new to me and fascinating.
Can't remember how readable it was as it was for class so it had to be read.
But is was so interesting that when I lived in Japan I made a point of traveling around Southeast to see the sights described in the book.
Can't remember how readable it was as it was for class so it had to be read.
But is was so interesting that when I lived in Japan I made a point of traveling around Southeast to see the sights described in the book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews