Customer Reviews

Southeast Asia: Past And Present

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I have read books about China and India but had very little knowledge about the numerous other countries in SE Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. This book focuses on the history, colonial period, freedom struggles and current events of the countries of: The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. A History of SE Asia was written by D.R. Sardesai, a Professor of Asian studies at UCLA. This book is easy to read and full of eye opening facts, figures and historical information. Southeast Asia History: Past and Present is extensively researched. I found it fascinating to learn about all of these countries and walked away with a lot more knowledge of this region.

One note is that a book like this which is about different countries can be presented in two ways - one way would be where a couple of chapters are devoted to one country then that country is finished, and the next few chapters are devoted to another country and so on. The second way is to organize the book by time periods. This book is organized by time periods. So there is the historical era of all countries, then colonial era, etc. So I caught myself for example really getting into Vietnam's history and then suddenly the book will start discussing Cambodia in the same time period. Then in the next chapter Vietnam will be brought up again, but in another era.

At the end of this book is a 25 page timeline for China, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia. The timeline has leaders, wars, and other historical information. Following that is an extensive bibliography.

I greatly enjoyed the book and found it to be a valuable and informative read on these countries.

I just started going through the book and am worried about its accuracy.

I was a tad bit dismayed as on the very first page, it states that East Timor had enrolled in the ASEAN bloc. As far as I know East Timor has yet to be admitted. This appears to be an error. Likewise, I believe there were five, not four, founding members of ASEAN. The author has forgotten Thailand.

This really worries me. If such basic information about SE Asia is not correct, I wonder about the rest of the book.

If these are errors, I wonder how it could be in it's sixth edition without anyone catching them.