New Books in Southeast Asian Studies

Vincent Bevins, “The Jakarta Method” (Public Affairs, 2020)

Vincent Bevins
The Jakarta Method
Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World
Public Affairs, 2020

New Books in American Studies New Books in Genocide Studies New Books in History New Books in National Security New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network July 1, 2020 Michael G. Vann

Why did the word “Jakarta” appear as graffiti on the streets of Santiago in 1973? Why did left-wing Chilean activists receive postcards in the mail with the ominous message “Jakarta is coming”? Why did a Brazilian general lose his temper in an interview with university students, threaten their safety, and... Read More

Kevin W. Fogg, “Indonesia’s Islamic Revolution” (Cambridge UP, 2019)

Kevin W. Fogg
Indonesia’s Islamic Revolution

Cambridge University Press, 2019

New Books in History New Books in Islamic Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Political Science New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Religion New Books in Religion & Faith New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network June 30, 2020 Faizah Zakaria

As Indonesia nears the 75th anniversary of its proclamation of independence this year, the socio-political debates surrounding her birth as a nation-state take on contemporary salience. In Indonesia’s Islamic Revolution (Cambridge UP, 2019), Kevin W. Fogg analyzes the religious aspirations that motivated many Muslim revolutionaries to fight the return of... Read More

John Roosa, “Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia” (U Wisconsin Press, 2020)

John Roosa
Buried Histories
The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia
University of Wisconsin Press, 2020

New Books in Genocide Studies New Books in History New Books in Military History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies June 24, 2020 Michael G. Vann

On the night of September 30/October 1, 1965, a bungled coup d’état resulted in the deaths of a handful of Indonesian generals and a young girl. Within days the Indonesian army claimed that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), the largest communist party outside of the Soviet Union and the People’s... Read More

Chiara Formichi, “Islam and Asia: A History” (Cambridge UP, 2020)

Chiara Formichi
Islam and Asia
A History
Cambridge University Press, 2020

New Books in East Asian Studies New Books in History New Books in Islamic Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Religion & Faith New Books in South Asian Studies New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network May 30, 2020 Shobhana Xavier

Challenging the geographical narrative of the history of Islam, Chiara Formichi’s new book Islam and Asia: A History (Cambridge University Press, 2020), helps us to rethink how we tell the story of Islam and the lived expressions of Muslims without privileging certain linguistic, cultural, and geographic realities. Focusing on themes... Read More

Viet Thanh Nguyen, “Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War” (Harvard UP, 2016)

Viet Thanh Nguyen
Nothing Ever Dies
Vietnam and the Memory of War
Harvard University Press, 2016

New Books in American Studies New Books in Critical Theory New Books in History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network May 28, 2020 Michael G. Vann

According to Viet Thanh Nguyen, all wars are fought twice: first on the field of battle, and then in the struggles over memory. In Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (Harvard University Press, 2016) he explores the various ways in which the American War in Vietnam has... Read More

Wasana Wongsurawat, “The Crown and the Capitalists: The Ethnic Chinese and the Founding of the Thai Nation” (U Washington Press, 2019)

Wasana Wongsurawat
The Crown and the Capitalists
The Ethnic Chinese and the Founding of the Thai Nation
University of Washington Press, 2019

New Books in East Asian Studies New Books in History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network May 18, 2020 Patrick Jory

One can’t understand modern Thailand without understanding the role of the ethnic Chinese. And one can’t understand the role of the ethnic Chinese without understanding the history of their relationship to the Thai monarchy. This is exactly what Wasana Wongsurawat has documented in her new book, The Crown and the... Read More

Laurence Monnais, “The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals: Medicines and Modernity in Vietnam” (Cambridge UP, 2019)

Laurence Monnais
The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals
Medicines and Modernity in Vietnam
Cambridge University Press, 2019

New Books in Drugs, Addiction and Recovery New Books in French Studies New Books in History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Science & Technology New Books in Science, Technology, and Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network May 4, 2020 Lucas Richert

Situated at the crossroads between the history of colonialism, of modern Southeast Asia, and of medical pluralism, this history of medicine and health traces the life of pharmaceuticals in Vietnam under French rule. In The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals: Medicines and Modernity in Vietnam (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Laurence Monnais... Read More

Sara E. Davies, “Containing Contagion: The Politics of Disease Outbreaks in Southeast Asia” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2019)

Sara E. Davies
Containing Contagion
The Politics of Disease Outbreaks in Southeast Asia
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019

New Books in Medicine New Books in National Security New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Political Science New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Science & Technology New Books in Southeast Asian Studies April 15, 2020 Nick Cheesman

At the start of 2020 few of us would have recognized the face of the current director general of the World Health Organization. Three months later, and in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic he and other senior WHO officials appear on television and online almost daily, exhorting governments around... Read More

C. Baker and P. Phongpaichit, “From the Fifty Jātaka: Selections from the Thai Paññāsa Jātaka” (Silkworm Books, 2019)

Dr. Chris Baker and Prof. Pasuk Phongpaichit
From the Fifty Jātaka
Selections from the Thai Paññāsa Jātaka
Silkworm Books, 2019

New Books in Arts & Letters New Books in Buddhist Studies New Books in Literary Studies New Books in Literature New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Religion New Books in Religion & Faith New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network April 2, 2020 Alex Carroll

The Jātaka tales, or stories of the Buddha’s previous lives as a bodhisatta, are included in the Pāli Canon and have for centuries been a rich source of inspiration in Theravada Buddhism. In addition to these classical Jātaka, a number of other non-canonical Jātaka tales emerged in Southeast Asia and... Read More