Viet Nam

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.
Comprehensive yet readable ... It will serve the needs of both experts in Vietnamese history and general readers interested in Vietnam.... Viet Nam's ability to integrate ecology into political, cultural and economic history is truly impressive. * Michael G. Vann, Asian Studies Review *
A major contribution to contemporary Southeast Asian scholarship... a sympathetic study of a tenacious and capable people. * Robin Gerster, Australian Book Review *
This is a remarkably evocative, multifaceted, sophisticated, and original study not only of those groups who haltingly coalesced as Vietnamese, but also of the many peoples with whom they interacted, and indeed of an entire region during two millennia. This book, I suspect, will become a classic in Asian as well as Southeast Asian historiography. * Victor Lieberman, University of Michigan *
An audacious book, Kiernan's Viet Nam presents the country's long history to new, global audiences, eloquently showing how the deep past continues to shape and inform the present. * David Biggs, author of Quagmire: Nation-Building and Nature in the Mekong Delta *
This outstanding book shows that 'Viet Nam has always been much more than a war.' By making his themes the perennial continuities and changes in the vital ecologies and polyethnic cultures of the country, Ben Kiernan tells a story of shifting layers that is lucid and rich. His work is a kaleidoscope of Vietnamese history. * Greg Lockhart, author of Nation in Arms: the Origins of the People's Army of Vietnam *
Kiernan offers a comprehensive overview of Vietnamese history from prehistoric times to the 21st century ... A distinctive quality of this work is its inclusion of environmental and linguistic history. The author effectively explains how geography and changing weather patterns (droughts, etc.) impacted historical development and demonstrates how changes in language over time provides information about Vietnam's past ... Essential for all students of Vietnamese history. Extensive descriptions of Vietnam's relations with its neighbors also make this valuable reading for those interested in Chinese or Southeast Asian history. * Library Journal *