The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Volume 2, Part 2: From World War II to the Present

The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia

by Nicholas Tarling (Editor)

Volume 4 covers the period from World War II to the present and examines the end of European colonial empires, the emergence of political structures of the independent states, economic and social change, religious change in contemporary Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia's role and identity in decolonization, and the ongoing weakening of links with the West.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Nicholas Tarling was Professor of History at the University of Auckland from 1968 until 1997 and a Fellow of its New Zealand Asia Institute. He was the editor of The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia and wrote nearly 50 books and a large number of articles on the region.

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 3 out of 5]

These volumes tend to get weaker the further they go towards today, which I find is almost always the case for any work of history, whether regional or country specific. The sections here mostly veer into the theory-heavy, especially the bits on economics and, surprisingly, religion which should've been one of the better chapters. To its detriment, there is a volume-wide attempt by the authors to address its themes in a regional context which requires some clever and often unsuccessful periodizing and historiography.
I was surprised at how little of the volume was given over to World War II and the Second Indochina War (what Americans like to call 'Nam or "The Shit"). There's basically nothing on Suharto and East Timor and America's policy/idiocy is largely given a pass, weird considering the volume's insistence on treating the area as a kind of organic whole.
So, not all bad, but could've been handled better.