A Short History of South-East Asia

by Peter Church

Explore the fascinating history of south-east Asia A Short History of South-East Asia, Sixth Edition is the latest in a series of updated texts spotlighting this fascinating region. With revised chapters for all of the countries in this geographic area, this interesting text paints a remarkable overview of the characters and events that have shaped this part of the world. Founded upon a deeply perceptive observation of the late founding Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, this book brings shape to the idea that 'to understand the present and to anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have a sense of the history of a people.' With an approachable writing style and comprehensive content, this unique text was written for business readers interested in improving their understanding of this important region. With globalization continuing to gain momentum, south-east Asia is emerging as an important business sector for many industries. Not only does this open up professional opportunities, it exposes individuals in other parts of the world to the unique histories and cultures of the area. If you are interested in learning more about the region, this abbreviated text is a wonderful resource. A Short History of South-East Asia, Sixth Edition is an abbreviated history of south-east Asia written with business readers in mind.

Genres: History

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 10, 2017

Reviews

[Arkar]

Short and succinct backgrounds about each of the Southeast Asian countries—somewhat like a Cliffnotes version. Missing many details but I think that’s the point of this short introduction book.

Nevertheless, personally felt this book could have been better by being more focused on the recent happenings eg from WWII, or from the beginning of the 20th century. Instead, it felt over ambitious and lacking depth to try to stretch back to the historical events in the first millennium.

[Pramod Pant]

Country by country ! Cohesion, an essential part of a good history book, is missing . It’s mostly about rulers.

[Wei Ming]

A country by country analysis of Southeast Asia, lacking depth at times. Useful for giving broad sweeps of countries, but boring without a framework to think about and classify information.

[Jeffrey Zima]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Full disclosure: I only read about half of it, the parts on Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Great summation of its historical parts!