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Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present
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About Viet Nam: A History From Earliest Times To The
Product Description For many Westerners, the name Vietnam evokes images of a bloody televised American war that generated a firestorm of protest and brought conflict into their living rooms. In his sweeping account, Ben Kiernan broadens this vision by narrating the rich history of the peoples who have inhabited the land now known as Viet Nam over the past three thousand years. Despite the tragedies of the American-Vietnamese conflict, Viet Nam has always been much more than a war. Its long history had been characterized by the frequent rise and fall of different political formations, from ancient chiefdoms to imperial provinces, from independent kingdoms to divided regions, civil wars, French colonies, and modern republics. In addition to dramatic political transformations, the region has been shaped by its environment, changing climate, and the critical importance of water, with rivers, deltas, and a long coastline facilitating agricultural patterns, trade, and communications. Kiernan weaves together the many narrative strands of Viet Nam's multi-ethnic populations, including the Chams, Khmers, and Vietnamese, and its multi-religious heritage, from local spirit cults to Buddhism, Confucianism, and Catholicism. He emphasizes the peoples' interactions over the millennia with foreigners, particularly their neighbors in China and Southeast Asia, in engagements ranging from military conflict to linguistic and cultural influences. He sets the tumultuous modern period--marked by French and Japanese occupation, anticolonial nationalism, the American-Vietnamese war, and communist victory--against the continuities evident in the deeper history of the people's relationships with the lands where they have lived. In contemporary times, he explores this one-party state's transformation into a global trading nation, the country's tense diplomatic relationship with China and developing partnership with the United States in maintaining Southeast Asia's regional security, and its uncertain prospects for democracy. Written by a leading scholar of Southeast Asia, Viet Nam presents an authoritative history of an ancient land. Review "Kiernan's dispassionate recording of the behaviour of the regional powers--Champa, Cambodia, China, India--should help to make Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times a durable work."--Sophie Quinn-Judge, Times Literary Supplement "Ben Kiernan shifts his gaze eastward in this ambitious study, Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present.... By assessing the long durée, Kiernan reveals the multifaceted nature of Vietnam's history and suggests that there was a relatively transient nature to the ebb and flow of the various dynasties that competed with one another within Vietnam's territory...suggesting, quite rightly, that there were alternative historical paths that might have been taken....A clearly written and broad introductory overview to the history of Vietnam that is appropriate for an upper-level undergraduate class." -- Geoffrey C. Stewart, American Historical Review "In Viet Nam, Ben Kiernan synthesises three millennia of history in a beautiful book that aids the reader with numerous maps and over a dozen photographs documenting the daily life of the Vietnamese people. It is a work full of insights for students of Southeast Asia generally and, more specifically, for comparative historians and political scientists interested in nationalism, anti-colonialism, US foreign policy, and the reform and modernisation of socialism. By taking the long view, the author successfully liberates the history of Viet Nam from the reductionist view of a US military misadventure, revealing long-term trends in political organisation, culture and environmental changes." -- Vicken Cheterian, University of Geneva and Webster University Geneva, Europe-Asia Studies "Comprehensive yet readable ... It will serve the needs of both experts in Vietnamese history and general readers interested in Vietnam.... Viet Nam's
