Vietnam or Indochina?: Revisiting a Classic Study in Contesting Concepts Of Space In Vietnamese Nationalism

by Christopher E. Goscha

Why, Benedict Anderson once asked, did Javanese become Indonesian in 1945 whereas the Vietnamese balked at becoming Indochinese? In this classic study, Goscha shows that Vietnamese of all political colours came remarkably close to building a modern national identity based on the colonial model of Indochina while Lao and Cambodian nationalists rejected this precisely because it represented a Vietnamese entity. Specialists of French colonial, Vietnamese, Southeast Asia and nationalism studies will all find much of value in Goscha’s provocative rethinking of the relationship between colonialism and nationalism in Indochina.First published in 1995, a revised edition of this remarkable study is now issued, augmented with new material by the author and a foreword by Eric Jennings.

154 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

About the author

Christopher Goscha studied at the School of Foreign Service, University of Georgetown (BA), the Australian National University at Canberra (MA), the University Diderot Paris VIII (MA) and l’École des Hautes Études (PhD, La Sorbonne). He joined the history department at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2005. He teaches international relations, world history, the history of colonial and postcolonial Indochina, decolonization and the Indochina Wars. He has published several books including the Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945-1954): An International and Interdisciplinary Approach (University of Hawaii/Cophenhagen, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2011), Vietnam, Un Etat né de la guerre (Paris, Armand Colin, 2011) and The Penguin History of Vietnam (London, Penguin/Random House, 2016) Vietnam, A New History (2017 John K. Fairbank Prize Winner – American Historical Association) (New York, Basic Books, 2016, slightly revised American version of the Penguin History of Vietnam).

Ancien élève de l’École des Affaires étrangères de l’Université Georgetown (BSFS), de l’Australian National University à Canberra (MA), de l’Université Diderot Paris VII (DEA) et de l’École des Hautes Études (PhD, La Sorbonne, Paris), Christopher Goscha est professeur au sein du département d’histoire à l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Depuis 2005, il y enseigne les relations internationales, l’histoire globale, l’histoire de l’Indochine coloniale, la décolonisation et les guerres d’Indochine. Il est l’auteur de plusieurs ouvrages dont l’Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945-1954): An International and Interdisciplinary Approach (University of Hawaii/Cophenhagen, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2011), Vietnam, Un Etat né de la guerre (Paris, Armand Colin, 2011) et The Penguin History of Vietnam (Londres, Penguin/Random House, 2016) Vietnam, A New History (2017 John K. Fairbank Prize Winner – American Historical Association) (New York, Basic Books, 2016, version américaine légèrement révisée du Penguin History of Vietnam).