Customer Reviews

France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia, 1863-1953

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

 

 

This is one of the very few works on this area and period that can be said to present genuinely good original research. For a sound analysis of the history of Cambodia across an important transitional period, this is the best source. It is also very well written, easy to read, fully documented. It is therefore a pity not to grace such excellent work with 5 stars - and I have chosen to give only 4 because the author has been very sadly let down by a very sloppy editorial team - nothing to do with the main text - that is excellent - but the index provides the reader with an unannounced mathematical exercise whenever it is used. The index seems to be based on a version that is some 45-50 pages longer than this one, so to find an item it is necessary to look, not on the cited page, but on a page that is approximately (N-N*450/500) earlier in the text. This is not helpful for the average historian. Do not let this put anybody off reading this as a great piece of history - but I happen to think an index is a useful tool in a book - and a tool which these days is a trivial task to get right.