Book Review: South-East Asia: A Concise History of Southeast Asia
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200240 |
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| Author | John F Cady |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
349
United
States
by
other
states
in
the
region,
some
of
which
would
prob-
ably
arrange
speedy
salvage
agreements
with Communist
China.
Kennedy's
book
is
happily
devoid
of
emotional pleading,
technical
jargon
and
slick
journalese;
moreover
its Australian
perspective
cer
tainly
does
not limit
its
value
to
Australian
or
New
Zealand
readers.
St.
Antony's
College,
Oxford
PETER
BOYCE
A
CONCISE
HISTORY
OF
SOUTHEAST
ASIA.
By
Nicholas
Tarling.
1966.
(New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger.
Toronto:
Bums
&
MacEachern.
xvi,
334pp.
$9.00)
The
four
sections
of
Professor Tarling's
book
are
divided
into
38
chapters,
which
are
numbered
consecutively
within
each
unit.
Seven
of
the
twelve
chapters
(91
pages)
of
Part
I,
which
carries the
story
down
to
1760,
deal
with
the
affairs
of
the
Indonesian archipelago.
The
sixteen
chapters
of
Part
II
(139
pages)
go
to
1942,
while
the
remaining
70
pages
of
text
cover
the
period
since
the
war.
The
Australian
point
of
view
is
reflected
in
the
predominant
emphasis
given
to
the
role
of
the
Dutch
in
Indonesia
after
1600
and
to
British
Malayan
policy
after
1824,
aspects
of
the
story
on
which
the
author
is
well
informed.
More
than
60
per
cent.
of
the
footnote
citations
listed
at
the
end of
the
book
refer
to
Indonesian and
Malayan
materials.
Otherwise
the
treatment
and documentation
are
very
scanty
The
author
pays
little
attention
to
the historical
and
cultural
development
of
the
various
peoples
inhabiting the
region.
He devotes
single
paragraphs
to
Burma's
history
down
to
the fall
of
Pagan
in
1287
and
to
Indonesia's
history
down
to
the
mid-14th
century
He
describes
the
Portuguese
arrival
in
one-third
of
a
page,
and makes
no
serious effort
to
assess
the
historical
significance
of
the Portuguese
presence.
European
interests
in such
peripheral
areas
as
North
Borneo, Sulu,
New
Guinea,
and
the
Andaman-
Nicobar
Islands
are
accorded
nine
pages,
whereas
the
French
role
in
Indochina
merits
only
seven
pages, and
Burma's
history
from
1763
to
1900
a mere
2%
pages.
Better
balance
is
achieved
in
the
brief
but
informative
post-war
chapters.
Like
other
students
of
Southeast
Asian
history the
author fre-
quently
gets
beyond
his
depth.
Thai-Sham
migrations
southward
started
long
before
the
destruction
of
Nan
Chao by
the
Mongol
army
in
1253,
and
Nan
Chao
may
not
have
been
a
Thai
state
at
all.
The
expertly
developed
Dutch
trading
system
operating throughout
mari-
time
Asia
was
not
fashioned,
as
Tarling
alleges,
on
the
previous
Portuguese
pattern.
The
year
1760
is
hardly
a
major
watershed
in
the
periodization
of
Southeast
Asian
history.
Parliament's
ending
the
East
India
Company's
trading
monopoly
in
1813
and
1833
can
more
properly
be
attributed
to
the
jealousy
of
London's
trading
competitors
than
to
the rising
political
influence
of
industrial
interests.
Did
Craw-
furd's
mission
to
Hue
in
1822
really
influence
Minh
Mang's
court
to
break
with
the
surviving
French
mandarins
9
And
was
the
Dupuis-
Gamier
crisis
at
Hanoi
in
1873-1874
in
any
way connected
with the
news
that
German
troops
had
withdrawn
from
France
If
such
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