Using a unique "old–new" treatment, this book presents new perspectives on several important topics in Southeast Asian history and historiography. Based on original, primary research, it reinterprets and revises several long-held conventional views in the field, covering the period from the "classical" age to the twentieth century. Chapters share the approach to Southeast Asian history and historiography: namely, giving "agency" to Southeast Asia in all research, analysis, writing, and interpretation.

The book honours John K. Whitmore, a senior historian in the field of Southeast Asian history today, by demonstrating the scope and breadth of the scholar’s influence on two generations of historians trained in the West. In addition to providing new information and insights on the field of Southeast Asia, this book stimulates new debate on conventional ideas, evidence, and approaches to its teaching, research, and understanding. It addresses, and in many cases, revises specific, critically important topics in Southeast Asian history on which much conventional knowledge of Southeast Asia has long been based. It is of interest to scholars of Southeast Asian Studies, as well as Asian History.

Reviews

"This book lives up to its title in that the reader will find revised explanations for facets of Southeast Asian history that continue to be misrepresented as well as new approaches to the historiography of the region that rely increasingly on indigenous sources. While of great interest to Southeast Asia specialists, it also holds thoughtful new insights for those who deal with Southeast Asia only in world or global history courses." - James M. Hastings, Ph.D., Wingate University; Journal of International and Global Studies Vol. 3, No. 2 Spring 2012

Contents

Foreword 1. Introduction Michael Aung-Thwin and Kenneth R. Hall 2. John K. Whitmore’s Contribution to Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies Victor Lieberman 3. A New/Old Look at ‘Classical&rs ‘Post-Classical’ Southeast Asia/Burma Michael Aung-Thwin 4. Sojourning Communities, Ports-of-Trade, and Commercial Networking in Southeast Asia’s Eastern Regions, c. 1000-1400 Kenneth R. Hall 5. Chinese-style Firearms in Southeast Asia: Focusing on Archeological Evidence Sun Laichen 6. To Catch a Tiger: The Suppression of the Yang Yinglong Miao Uprising (1587-1600) as a Case Study in Ming Military and Borderlands History Kenneth M. Swope 7. Maritime Subversions and Socio-Political Formations in Vietnamese History: A Look from the Marginal Center (mien Trung) Charles Wheeler 8. "1620," A Cautionary Tale Michael Vickery 9. The Imported Book Trade and Confucian Learning in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Vietnam Li Tana 10. Literacy in Early Seventeenth-Century Northern Vietnam Keith W. Taylor 11. The Limping Monk and the Deaf King: Peasant Politics, Subaltern Agency, and the Postcolonial Predicament in Colonial Burma Maitrii Aung-Thwin 12. The Myths of the Tet Offensive Edwin E. M...