Penguin history of modern vietnam, paperback/christopher goscha

WINNER OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS JOHN K.

FAIRBANK PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDHILL HISTORY PRIZE 2017 This is the finest single-volume history of Vietnam in English.

It challenges myths, and raises questions about the socialist republics political future Guardian Powerful and compelling.

Vietnam will be of growing importance in the twenty-first-century world, particularly as China and the US rethink their roles in Asia.

Christopher Goschas book is a brilliant account of that countrys history.

- Rana Mitter A vigorous, eye-opening account of a country of great importance to the world, past and future - Kirkus Reviews Over the centuries the Vietnamese have beenboth colonizers themselves and the victims of colonization by others.

Their country expanded, shrunk, split and sometimes disappeared, often under circumstances far beyond their control.

Despite these often overwhelming pressures, Vietnam has survived as one of Asias most striking and complex cultures.

As more and more visitors come to this extraordinary country, there has been for some years a need for a major history - a book which allows the outsider to understand the many layers left by earlier emperors, rebels, priests and colonizers.

Christopher Goschas new work amply fills this role.

Drawing on a lifetime of thinking about Indo-China, he has created a narrative which is consistently seen from inside Vietnam but never loses sight of the connections to the outside.

As wave after wave of invaders - whether Chinese, French, Japanese or American - have been ultimately expelled, we see the terrible cost to the Vietnamese themselves.

Vietnams role in one of the Cold Wars longest conflicts has meant that its past has been endlessly abused for propaganda purposes and it is perhaps only now that the events which created the modern state can be seen from a truly historical perspective.

Christopher Goscha draws on the latest research and discoveries in Vietnamese, French and English.

His book is a major achievement, describing both the grand narrative of Vietnams story but also the byways, curiosities, differences, cultures and peoples that have done so much over the centuries to define the many versions of Vietnam.