The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History.

• Author: Than, Tin Maung Maung
• Position: Book Review

The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History. Edited by Norman G. Owen. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2005. Softcover: 541pp.

This is the best introductory text on Southeast Asian History that the reviewer had come across in many years. Though there are many compilations reviewing the political and/or economic history of the region that came to be commonly recognized as Southeast Asia in the aftermath of World War II as well as numerous illuminating monographs and books on individual states located within the region, this volume stands out as a balanced and parsimonious account of how Southeast Asia has come to be what it is now. It is quite successful in capturing the essence of the region's trials and tribulations in coping with, first, colonialism and, later, globalization.

It is tempting to compare this product of collective endeavour by a group of Southeast Asianists with In Search of Southeast Asia, its distinguished and successful predecessor produced by almost the same group of scholars (with the exception of two new contributors) some 18 years ago. However, as indicated in the Preface, it is "a fresh look at modern Southeast Asian History", intended as a "shorter more accessible text for the twenty-first century" (p. iv), perhaps cognizant of an audience belonging to a generation overwhelmingly accustomed to short audio-visual inputs--and altogether assumes a separate identity. As such, it will be treated as a different book in its own right and not viewed through lens coloured by the earlier book.

The book, organized into 37 chapters in five parts, manages to trace the "processes of historical transformation" as well as to portray the "chronological narratives of events" unfolding across time and space (p. xi) in a clear and concise narrative. The 13 "general" and 24 "country" chapters complement one another, especially on "developments that do not fit easily into conventional chronology and are not unique to a single country" (p. xi). The thematic exposition of "common" issues in the form of lead chapters preceding country analyses (in Part 2 and Part 5) or as entire parts (Part 1 and Part 3) helps contextualize the socio-economic and political transformations undergone by the individual countries in a span of some three centuries and provides regional coherence in interpreting the seemingly disparate events and processes in individual countries. Here, the only quibble would be the absence of a chapter...