A History of Modern Burma [Paperback]

Michael W. Charney (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521617588 | ISBN-13: 978-0521617581 | Publication Date: February 2, 2009

Burma has lived under military rule for nearly half a century. The results of its 1990 elections were never recognized by the ruling junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's pro-democracy movement, was denied her victory. She has been under housearrest ever since. Now an economic satellite and political dependent of the People's Republic of China, Burma is at a crossroads. Will it become another North Korea, will it succumb to China's political embrace or will the people prevail? Michael Charney's book -the first general history of modern Burma in over five decades - traces the highs and lows of Burma's history from its pre-colonial past to the "Saffron Revolution" of 2007. By exploring key themes such as the political division between lowland and highland Burma and monastic opposition to state control, the author explains the forces that have made the country what it is today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent work that deals with the period from the annexation of Upper Burma by the British in 1886 until the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. The focus is on the period from the 1930s, as self-government was gained in 1937. Charney, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at SOAS, is well-qualified to write this work and he offers a careful account, one that is particularly nuanced in its coverage of the civil conflict and totalitarianism of recent years. What would be welcome is a similar work by Charney on Burmese history as a whole." - The Historian

"This is an incredibly valuable history. In straightforward prose, Charney, a senior historian of pre-modern and modern Burma (Univ. of London), presents a thorough overview of Burmese history with a primary focus on the unfolding of events since independence in 1948.... Charney's narrative is clear, expeditious, and a great resource and reference for anyone interested in this period.... Essential." - Choice

"Those seeking a brisk, yet comprehensive, overview of the modern political history of this fascinating and complex country at last have an adequate reference book." - ASEAUK News

Book Description

Michael Charney's book - the first general history of modern Burma in over five decades - traces the highs and lows of Burma's history from its pre-colonial past to the 'Saffron Revolution' of 2007 and, by exploring key themes, explains the forces that have made the country what it is today.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521617588
• ISBN-13: 978-0521617581
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > History > Asia > Myanmar
  • #71 in Books > History > Asia > Southeast Asia

More About the Author

I am Reader in South East Asian and Imperial History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). Although the core of my research and teaching has been on societies in South East Asia, my training, teaching, and research interests are much broader and this is reflected in part in the focus in my work on issues of movement, contact, and friction in culture, technology, and religion in both the premodern and modern periods between cultures and in frontier zones as varied as Brahmanic and Buddhist interaction on the Chindwin River in Upper Burma, Islamic and Buddhist communalism in Arakan and Southeastern Bengal, Portuguese Catholic contact with Buddhist monks in lands around the Bay of Martaban, the meeting of Iberian and Malay cultures of war at Melaka in 1511, and most recently, American engineers and indigenous elites in colonial Ghana and the Shan States. My diversity of research and teaching interests probably owes much to the diversity of my postgraduate education, including M.A. degrees in Asian Studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Asian History at Ohio University (Athens), which included a minor in African history, and a PhD in History from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), which included, in addition to my core premodern South East Asian history field, teaching fields in premodern Chinese, Japanese, and Russian history and modern Southeast Asian history. I also owe much to my exposure to great, dynamic, and interesting supervisors and instructors during my undergraduate and postgraduate years at Ohio and Michigan, as well as great colleagues in the years following, both at the Centre for Advanced Studies at the National University of Singapore (1999-2001), where I was a postdoctoral research fellow for two years working on migration and religion, and in the Department of History here at the School of Oriental and African Studies (2001 to the present). My three monographs include Southeast Asian Warfare, 1300-1900 (2004), Powerful Learning: Buddhist Literati and the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752-1885 (2006), and A History of Modern Burma (2009). This most recent volume, A History of Modern Burma, was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2009 by Choice Magazine, published by the Association for College and Research Libraries. I also co-edited three volumes related to migration, education in Asia, and Overseas Chinese communities, edited a special issue of South East Asia Research on indigenous warfare in South East Asia (2004), and was chief editor from 2003 until 2010 of the SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research. I am in the process of turning my dissertation, "Where Jambudipa and Islamdom Converged: Religious Change and the Emergence of Buddhist Communalism in Early Modern Arakan, 15th-19th Centuries," from the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (1999) into a book. Simultaneously, I am working on a history of railways in Africa and Asia, focusing in particular on the case studies of Ghana, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Japan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seems like a good introduction, November 30, 2009

By 

Peter Huston (Adrift in the sea of life) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A History of Modern Burma (Paperback)

I hesitated to review this book as I do not feel qualified to judge its contents completely. However, having just read a second book with a similar focus (Steinberg's "Burma/Myanmar, what everyone needs to know") and seeing that the only other review was quite critical I decided to voice my opinion. Speaking as a non-expert I found this book quite good and would rate it with four or five stars. The author is a respected scholar and the publisher is a respected press. The writing is clear and easy to understand although it is dry and academic in style. (Some of us don't mind that at all.) It touches on many things in the colonial and post-colonial era and was quite informative in many ways. It cites sources well allowing one to confirm statements easily. I recommend it highly.