Phnom Penh: A Cultural History

by Milton Osborne

Overview

As a one-time resident of Phnom Penh and an authority on Southeast Asia, Milton Osborne provides a colorful account of the troubled history and appealing culture of Cambodia's capital city. Osborne sheds light on Phnom Penh's early history, when first Iberian missionaries and freebooters and then French colonists held Cambodia's fate in their hands. The book examines one of the most intriguing rulers of the twentieth century, King Norodom Sihanouk, who ruled over a city of palaces, Buddhist temples, and transplanted French architecture, an exotic blend that remains to this day. Osborne also describes the terrible civil war, the Khmer Rouge's capture of the city, the defeat of Pol Pot in 1979, and Phnom Penh's slow reemergence as one of the most attractive cities in Southeast Asia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199711734
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/04/2008
Series:	Cityscapes
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Milton Osborne is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra. He is the author of nine books on the history and politics of Southeast Asia.

Table of Contents

Preface1. A Personal Introduction to a Changing City2. Deciphering the Palimpsest: Finding the Past in the Present3. Iberian Alarums and Excursions4. Royal City, Colonial City5. Transformation: Building the New Phnom Penh in an Era of Colonial Good Feeling6. Phnom Penh before the Second World War: A Literary Way Station for the Angkor Temples7. Watershed Years, 1939-19538. "Sihanouk Time", 1953-19709. Three Years, Eight Months and Twenty Days: Phnom Penh under Pol Pot10. Writing Obituaries for "Old Phnom Penh"11. Ambiguous City in an Ambiguous Country, 1979-199312. Today's City: Somehow Hope SurvivesAppendix A: The Royal PalaceAppendix B: The National MuseumFurther Reading by Chapter