The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History

This volume offers a new and up-to-date perspective on Southeast Asia. Although it does not neglect nation-building (the central theme of its popular and long-lived predecessor, In Search of Southeast Asia), the present work focuses on economic and social history, gender and ecology. It describes the long-term impact of global forces on the region and traces the spread and interplay of capitalism, nationalism, and socialism. It acknowledges that modernization has produced substantial gains in such areas as life expectancy and education but has also spread dislocation and misery. Technology means helicopter gunships and government surveillance as well as jet travel and the internet. As the region's economies have grown, the environment has become polluted and natural resources have been savagely exploited. Organizationally, the book shifts between thematic chapters that describes social, economic, and cultural change, and "country" chapters emphasizing developments within specific areas