Footprints of War: Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam

Footprints of War: Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam

Footprints of War: Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam

Footprints of War: Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam

Paperback

$30.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Traces the multilayered political, social, and ecological consequences of military conflict

When American forces arrived in Vietnam, they found themselves embedded in historical village and frontier spaces already shaped by past conflicts. American bases and bombing targets followed spatial and political logics influenced by the footprints of previous wars in central Vietnam, and these militarized landscapes continue to shape postwar land-use politics.

Footprints of War traces the long history of conflict-produced spaces in Vietnam, beginning with early modern wars and the French colonial invasion in 1885 and continuing through the collapse of the Saigon government in 1975. Drawing on extensive archival research and years of interviews and fieldwork in the hills and villages around the city of Huế, David Biggs integrates historical geographic information system (GIS) data and uses aerial, high-altitude, and satellite imagery to render otherwise inscrutable sites as living, multidimensional spaces. This personal and multilayered approach yields an innovative history of the lasting traces of war in Vietnam and a model for understanding other militarized landscapes.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780295749730
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication date: 08/31/2021
Series: Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

David Biggs is professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. He is author of Quagmire: Nation-Building and Nature in the Mekong Delta, which won the George Perkins Marsh Prize for the best book in environmental history.

Table of Contents

Foreword: War Is in the Land Paul S. Sutter ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 3

1 Subterrains 21

2 Terraforming 46

3 Resistance 75

4 Ruins 102

5 Creative Destruction 132

6 Postwar 183

Notes 201

Selected Bibliography 235

Index 245

Plates follow page 124

What People are Saying About This

Mark Philip Bradley

"In this compelling and original book, Biggs innovatively combines environmental and social history to offer a fundamentally new narrative about the impact of war on Vietnamese society in the twentieth century."

From the Publisher

"In this compelling and original book, Biggs innovatively combines environmental and social history to offer a fundamentally new narrative about the impact of war on Vietnamese society in the twentieth century."—Mark Philip Bradley, University of Chicago

"David Biggs's second major book on the social and environmental history of modern Vietnam. His nuanced use of Vietnamese-language publications and his extensive interviews with local people are outstanding. He tells a compelling story in fluent, vivid, and even lyrical prose, expressing compassionate insight into both society and ecosystem."—Richard P. Tucker, University of Michigan

"In this rich and innovative new book, David Biggs considers the spatial dimension of the war in Vietnam through an examination of the densely layered militarized landscapes around Hu. The result is a gem, a fluid, authoritative, compelling work that shows just how deep, complex, and long-lasting were 'the footprints of war.'"—Fredrik Logevall, author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam

Richard P. Tucker

"David Biggs’s second major book on the social and environmental history of modern Vietnam. His nuanced use of Vietnamese-language publications and his extensive interviews with local people are outstanding. He tells a compelling story in fluent, vivid, and even lyrical prose, expressing compassionate insight into both society and ecosystem."

Fredrik Logevall

"In this rich and innovative new book, David Biggs considers the spatial dimension of the war in Vietnam through an examination of the densely layered militarized landscapes around Huế. The result is a gem, a fluid, authoritative, compelling work that shows just how deep, complex, and long-lasting were ‘the footprints of war.’"

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews