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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000003771841 | DS526.6 K42 1997 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Reviews 3
Publisher's Weekly Review
With an astute eye for psychology, a well-honed British wit, and an appreciable gift for language and storytelling, Keay has contributed an informative and engrossing account of what remains for Westerners today's most important and misunderstood geopolitical region. Drawing on extensive English-language sources, he has tackled a vast and heterogeneous subject: the colonization of Asia spanning from the first Dutch endeavors in 1595 to the handover of Hong Kong this year, and has succeeded in what surely was a labor of love. He succeeds admirably in giving the history and the region a human face through profiles of the personalitiesboth colonizers and native playerswhose personal plans and ideologies often influenced the fate of each region more than their governments or peoples. Anecdotes about the people who lived it are key to this history, people like Thomas Raffles and Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore; Tunku Abdul Rahman in Malaysia; Hubertus van Mook and Sukarnoin Indonesia; Ramon Magsaysay and Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the Phillipines; Landsdale and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam; and Cecil Clementi in China. These aggregate thoughts and observations reveal the complex nature of events more faithfully than details of Western policy objectives or of the battles and treaties involved, and are fascinating to read. Keay remarks, "in 1980... it remained possible to detect in the region's still soft political alluvium the distinctive imprint of each imperial dinosaur." One need only know what to look for, and for that, this book is an informed guide. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
With Hong Kong ready to revert back to mainland China, Keay's look at the decline of Western colonial powers in Asia is timely indeed. His focus is from 1930 to the present, a period when such entrenched colonials as the British, French, Dutch, and Americans see their overseas possessions disappear. Keay finds three main reasons for this dramatic shift: Asia's long, rich history created a strong sense among Asians that they would prevail over their oppressors; the rapid growth of Communism as an ideology and as a response to imperialism; and advances in twentieth-century communications that disseminated the anticolonial message like never before. One could also add Western blindness as another factor. How else to explain the post^-World War II belief among the English, French, and Dutch that native peoples would welcome a return to their rule? An extremely accessible history, enlivened by scores of fascinating stories and telling anecdotes. --Brian McCombie
Library Journal Review
Keay (The Honorable Company, Macmillan, 1994) provides a solid overview of the British, French, Dutch, and American empires in the Far East, concentrating on the years after 1930. He examines the effects of the Pacific War on empire and on the emerging nationalistic movements. He also discusses the Vietnam War and insurgency movements and ends by speculating on the future of Hong Kong. "There seems to be a continuum in the history of the East," he explains, "to which, albeit for its own purposes, empire substantially contributed." A solid work; highly recommended.William L. Wuerch, Micronesian Area Research Ctr., Univ. of Guam (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
