Customer Reviews

Burma: The State of Myanmar

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Steinberg has produced another masterpiece. Having studied Burma for the last 4 years, I have found his work very reliable and it's one of the most unbiased analysis available. Many writings on Burma(Myanmar) are clouded with emotion hence impairing judgement - Steinberg, Silverstein, Smith and a few others are exceptions. This is on a par with some excellent books that have come out of ISEAS. There is some excellent data in this book for anyone who wants to get into understanding the economic history and contemporary political and economic demography. I strongly recomend it for any students who are considering any Burma related studies. His earlier books helped me enormously.

Prof Steinberg presents one of the few unbiased studies of Burma. Being familiar with a wide variety of authors on Burma, I know of no others who can so delicately balance his critique of the Burmese regime with a critique of Western policy toward Burma.

David I. Steinberg has worked with Burma for the last five decades. He has accumulated an amount of knowledge and experience that put him in a position of great authority in the field. This book is just what can be expected from him. Despite being now slightly dated (it was first published in 2000) it is a complete, balanced, informative and elegant piece of work. It is the single best work on Myanmar I have encountered in my studies so far, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the country's recent past, present and future. Plus, it's also a very enjoyable reading! What more can you ask for?

[...]

That said It's odd to see two reviews claiming David Steinberg is 'unbiased'. Few writers with a longstanding interest in a topic are unbiased. When the writer in question has worked for the US State Department, one starts to suspect what their biases might be.

One imagines that when a think tank employs some one to edit a book (in this case "Reconciling Burma/Myanmar: Essays on US Relations with Burma") it's precisely because of known biases.

It would be interesting to hear from reviewers with biases different to those expressed so far.

I'd like not to give a star rating in this case, but it doesn't seem to be possible. Please disregard the assigned score.