Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia from Angkor Wat to East Timor [3 volumes]

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Description

Colonial playground, hotbed of communism, exotic tourist destination, nexus of terrorism and the drug trade. These characteristics come to mind when thinking of contemporary Southeast Asia, but these labels fail to capture the cultural richness, geographical variety and vibrant history of this region. This reference work explores the history of the region that consists of Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, the Phillippines and East Timor. Organized in a user-friendly, alphabetical format, with entries ranging from brief descriptions to expansive essays, this comprehensive work covers archaeology and prehistory, politics and culture, socioeconomics, ethno-history, language, institutions and organizations, wars and conflicts, personalities, geography, religions and folklore and environment.

Reviews

"Southeast Asia is the encyclopedia that will be used for exploring and understanding this geopolitical region for many years ... Highly recommended for public, academic, and some high school libraries for the broad coverage and generally easy-to-understand articles." - Booklist "Finally, an encyclopedia devoted to the history of a geographic region that has received little attention in reference literature ... This user-friendly work is more accessible to the broader audience. Highly recommended for high school, public, and academic libraries." - Library Journal "The editor has accomplished his goal of producing an accessible volume covering an area that is little understood in the West." - American Reference Books Annual "The work affords a broad, authoritative resource for those wanting more on the region than general encyclopedias provide, while guiding sophisticated users to significant literature. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General and academic readers." - Choice "The editor ... has accomplished a monumental task in pulling together a work conveying such a disparate region... Since this is the most current and comprehenisve reference work available on this important region, it is an important acquisition for academic libraries supporting courses and research on Southeast Asia." - MultiCultural Review

Author Bio

Ooi Keat Gin, PhD, is associate professor of history and coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Research Unit (APRU) of the School of Humanities at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia.