In Search of Southeast Asia is an introduction to the history of Southeast Asia over the last few centuries. It contains a couple of chapters dealing with issues common to the region, a chapter on each of the individual countries within the region, and then some more regional chapters. So you could use this book as a short history of just one of the countries if you wanted. The emphasis is on political history, but the coverage of economic and social history is reasonable.

Overall this is a very good book, the only disappointing feature being its date — a lot has happened in Southeast Asia in the last 20 years!

July 1992

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