Vietnam and the West

by Wynn Wilcox (Editor)

Overview

This sound interpretation of Vietnamese cultural attitudes contends that a major reason for American difficulties in Viet-Nam has been the failure to appreciate how wide the gulf is between Viet-Nam and the West. Professor Smith first describes Vietnamese political and social traditions and shows how they were challenged by the West after 1858. He examines Viet-Nam's search for independence and modernization in the first half of this century, contrasts the two governments of the partitioned country during the years 1954-1963, and stresses the critical need to reassess attitudes toward Viet-Nam. His sophisticated, ambitious survey of Viet-Nam history will have a lasting value that sets it apart from the scores of ephemeral books on this country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501711640
Publisher:	Southeast Asia Program Publications
Publication date:	11/15/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ralph Smith is Lecturer in the History of South East Asia in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

What People are Saying About This

Mark Philip Bradley

The rich interdisciplinary essays that make up this important volume fundamentally rethink the place of 'the West' as an imagined and real presence in the Vietnamese past and present. Their expansive chronological and topical range—from sixteenth-century Vietnamese Catholic literati to contemporary victims of Agent Orange—reveals the complex processes through which myriad translocal vernaculars have emerged in Vietnam over the last five hundred years. A splendid achievement.

Editorial Reviews

Vietnam and the West is a smart, ambitious... collection.... [that] manages to unearth nuanced historical nuggets complicating the internal/external binaries and domestic/foreign relationship perceptions of nearly all previous Vietnamese historical scholarship.

South East Asian Research

Vietnam and the West is a smart, ambitious... collection.... [that] manages to unearth nuanced historical nuggets complicating the internal/external binaries and domestic/foreign relationship perceptions of nearly all previous Vietnamese historical scholarship.

-- "South East Asian Research"

From the Publisher

"The rich interdisciplinary essays that make up this important volume fundamentally rethink the place of 'the West' as an imagined and real presence in the Vietnamese past and present. Their expansive chronological and topical range—from sixteenth-century Vietnamese Catholic literati to contemporary victims of Agent Orange—reveals the complex processes through which myriad translocal vernaculars have emerged in Vietnam over the last five hundred years. A splendid achievement."

Mark Philip Bradley

"Vietnam and the West is a smart, ambitious... collection.... [that] manages to unearth nuanced historical nuggets complicating the internal/external binaries and domestic/foreign relationship perceptions of nearly all previous Vietnamese historical scholarship."

South East Asian Research - Miriam B. Lam