The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma [Paperback]

Thant Myint-U (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374531161 | ISBN-13: 978-0374531164 | Publication Date: January 8, 2008

What do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma's past tell us about its present and even its future? For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma--through sanctions and tourist boycotts--only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship.

Now Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, and the story of his own family, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Through his prominent family's stories and those of others, he portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through a sixty-year civil war that continues today--the longest-running war anywhere in the world.

The River of Lost Footsteps is a work at once personal and global, a "brisk, vivid history" (Philip Delves Broughton, The Wall Street Journal) that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Analysis of Burma has been "singularly ahistorical," Thant Myint-U (The Making of Modern Burma), a senior officer at the U.N., observes. With an eye to what the past might say about Burma's present status as a country in crisis, Thant Myint-U examines the legacy of imperialism, war and invasion. Recounting in a well-crafted narrative the colorful histories of Burmese dynastic empires from ancient times to the 18th century, Thant Myint-U then focuses on how, during the 19th century, the Burmese kingdom of Ava fought and lost a series of border wars with the British East India Company, culminating in a treaty that marked the beginning of Burma's loss of independence. Considering the country's longstanding global isolation in the context of its geographic and cultural singularity, Thant Myint-U interweaves his own family's history, writing extensively about his maternal grandfather, U Thant, who rose from humble origins to become secretary-general of the U.N. in the 1960s. Profiling 20th-century Burmese leaders such as Aung San, U Nu and Nobel Peace Prize–winning activist Aung San Suu Kyi, Thant Myint-U beautifully captures the complex identity of a little-understood country, concluding with a trenchant analysis of Burma's current predicament under an oppressive regime. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

An international pariah for the past four decades, Burma has seen its profile, though not its military government's reputation, rise higher in recent years because of the saga of Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Thant contributes welcome context to her plight under house arrest, as well as to Burma's, writ large with this history. It reaches into ancient mists, establishing the origins of Burmese national traditions (in terms of revered places, admired kings, and Buddhism), and commences concretely with three wars that culminated in Britain's colonization of the country in 1885. Administratively part of British India, Burma regained some autonomy in the 1930s, but its nationalists, according to Thant, were inclined toward ideological extremism, with baleful effects: the founder of the military regime, Ne Win, sided with the Japanese invaders in World War II and in 1962 imposed a form of nationalistic socialism that suffocated the economy and isolated the country from the world community. This readable, reflective history will support revived interest in Burma. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374531161
• ISBN-13: 978-0374531164
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > History > Asia > Myanmar
  • #35 in Books > History > Asia > Southeast Asia

More About the Author

Thant Myint-U was born in New York City in 1966 to Burmese parents and was educated at Harvard and Cambridge University, where he completed his PhD in history in 1996.

He has served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations, in Cambodia and in the former Yugoslavia, as well as six years with the UN Secretariat in NY, including as the head of policy planning in the Department of Political Affairs.

He has also taught modern history for several years as a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and is the author of three books, The Making of Modern Burma, The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma, and, most recently, Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written introduction to a fascinating country, December 14, 2006

By 

Susan Lin (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma (Hardcover)

The book starts with a dramatic account of the fall of Mandalay to the British and the bloody guerilla war which followed in the late 19th century. It then describes the tumultuous 1988 uprising which led to the death of hundreds of protesters and what the author sees as the failed international policy towards Burma ever since. He blames this failed policy on the lack of any appreciation of Burmese history and what follows over about 300 pages is his telling of Burmese history, with a lot of stories from his own families history and his own travel around Burma thrown in. At the end he returns to international policy towards Burma and his criticism of sanctions and attempts to isolate the country because of its repressive military government.

The author is the grandson of former UN Secretary-General U Thant and so has a sort of special perspective on at least modern Burmese history.

It's scholarly, with lots of footnotes, but not at all 'academic' in style. It has lots of colorful anecdotes and is often really funny. There's an undercurrent of humor throughout the book. At times though its very sad and poignant. I think one of the most interesting things in the book is how it connects events in Burmese history to events going on around the world at the time, from Ming China and Mughal India, to British politics to Japanese planning for World War Two. The best parts are the more personal parts, I think.

I'd recommend this to any armchair history reader and especially to anyone interested in Asian history or the British empire. For Burma-philes like me, this will probably be a favorite book for a long time.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining history and personal memoir, December 17, 2006

By 

Jayne H.L. (Oxford) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma (Hardcover)

This is really two books (or more) woven into one: 1) in part a well-written and fast-paced history of Burma, with many insights into how Burma's history intersects with global history and 2) a personal memoir and observations about Burma today, with many stories drawn from the author's very interesting family history as well.

I found the book by turns amusing and sad and generally very engaging. It's definately something non-experts can enjoy, including those without any prior knowledge at all of Asian history, let alone Burma. In a way, there is something in it for everyone, from military history, to travelogue, to political commentary, to archeology.

My only wish would be that the author spent a little more time on the present day.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good read for beginners on Burma, January 27, 2007

By 

Enjolras (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma (Hardcover)

This is a great introduction to Burma and its history. It is well written, clear, and sometimes funny. Furthermore, it is not too detailed for novices.

The author's main point is a good one. Discussion of Burma tends to be largely ahistorical. Few consider Burma's history when deciding policy. I wouldn't exactly consider US senators to have this level of sophistication, but it seems that somebody should, especially lobbyists. Through history, the author shows Burma as having been often isolated and torn, with little institutional capacity to govern after the British took over.

I thought the last few pages were a bit glib and not well argued. I disagree with current US policy of isolation, but the author loses his depth of understanding and seems to label the Burma lobby in the same brush as the government of Burma. The truth is, sanctions probably have relatively little effect on Burma. If the author has shown anything, it is the extent to which Burma's government isolates itself from international norms and pressure. While perhaps more aid money and business would go into the country without sanctions, much of it would not go in anyway because of the government's pervasive mismanagement and corruption (Global Fund pulled out because of misuse of its funds; Red Cross was recently expelled).

Despite these last few pages, the book is overall a great read for novices and long-time Burma watchers.