Yale University
Council on  Southeast Asia Studies
Monographs

Currently available publications with descriptions and prices are listed below
by country/area and volume numbers (click on country above, or scroll down)
-> Click here for chronological / ISBN data list

BURMA

#49 The 1988 Uprising in Burma, by Dr. Maung Maung.  306 pp., (1999).  $35.00 cloth; $22.00 paper 
      A personal account of a critical turning point in Burmese history by someone closely involved in the events. Dr. Maung Maung, former president of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, presents a set of reminiscences covering his part in events in Burma from the end of the war up through the day of the military takeover on September 18, 1988. 
  Editorial Comments: "...an 'insider's` apologia....of lasting historical importance, given the unique vantage point of Dr. Maung Maung." -James C. Scott
  Reviewer's Comments:   "....an attempt to rewrite history, a whitewash....a blind eulogy to Burma's aging strongman Gen Ne Win...bizarre interpretations of what happened in Rangoon twelve years ago."   -Bertil Lintner, The Irrawaddy

CAMBODIA 

#25     Revolution and Its Aftermath in Kampuchea: Eight Essays, edited by David P. Chandler and Ben Kiernan. 319 pp. (1983).  $14.00 
   Eight authors describe politics and life during the period of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) under the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, focusing primarily on political and social history, and conveyed in extraordinary and vivid personal histories. 
   Reviewers' Comments: ..."a compelling volume... an engrossing and important work..." -John Girling 
 "... highly recommended...it gives deep insight into a country whose path of development has been particularly distinctive during the last two decades." -Sociologia Ruralis 

#33      Pol Pot Plans the Future: Confidential Leadership Documents from Democratic Kampuchea, 1976-1977, edited and translated by David P. Chandler, Ben Kiernan, and Chanthou Boua.  346 pp. (1988).  $20.00 
   Annotated translations of confidential documents intended for the eyes of Communist Party leaders of Cambodia in 1976 and 1977, as well as the "confession" extracted under torture from a minister of the regime accused of treason in 1977. 
    Reviewers' Comments:  "...chilling testimony, from the inside...unprecedented insight into the vision and strategies of the tightly controlled leadership of Democratic Kampuchea...a compelling case study for the evolution of radical utopian movements." -Mary Byrne McDonnell 

#41       Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the U.N., and the International Community, Edited by Ben Kiernan. 335 pp. (1993). Cloth $30.00; paper $17.00. 
    Proceedings of the 1992 Raphael Lemkin Symposium, co-published with the Schell Center for International Human Rights, Yale Law School.  Specialists from seven disciplines examine the record of the Khmer Rouge, and the international community's involvement with the affairs of the country. 
    Reviewers' Comments: "…recommended without reservation for all levels of readership....a stimulating collection of essays by a diverse group...including Cambodians.”  -R. Marlay, Choice 

#50      Heaven Becomes Hell: A Survivor's Story of Life Under the Khmer Rouge,
by Ly Y.  232 pp. (2000).  Cloth $35.00; paper $22.00.
      A rare, first-person account of four harrowing years, mostly tragic, sometimes touching, and sometimes even humorous.  Ly Y and his wife survived, but their 18-month old child died during the forced march from Phnom Penh after their family and the city's inhabitants were driven out by the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
    Reviewers' Comments:  "...lyrically personal.... Passing of touching beauty and sadness like this should never be forgotten"  -G. Carbone, Seacoast Newspapers
"....odd moments of tense comedy and euphoria."   -D. Fesperman, Maryland Sun
"Unless you see something like this through the eyes of someone who's experienced it, you really can't begin to grasp it."   -J. Driscoll, former Editor-In-Chief, Boston Globe

INDONESIA 

    Film on Indonesia, a Catalog, by Toby Alice Volkman, ix, 52 pp. (1985).  $4.00 
   Reviewers' Comments:  "...practically informative, ethnographically aware, and readable..."  -Robert Hefner 
 "...a valuable resource for teachers and students of Indonesian studies, anthropology, ethnographic film..." 
 -Asian Studies Association of Australia 

#17    Foreign Policy and National Integration: The Case of Indonesia, by Jon M. Reinhardt, vi, 230 pp. (1972).  $8.50 
   Analysis of post-colonial Indonesian political development and "modernization" following World War II. 

#35      Indonesian Economic History of the Dutch Colonial Era, edited by Anne Booth, William J. O'Malley and Anna Weidemann., x, 369 pp.  (1990).  Cloth, $30.00; paper, $17.00. 
   A collection of fifteen essays providing a well-integrated, thoroughly documented survey of Indonesian economic development in the final century of Dutch colonial rule.
   Reviewers' Comments:  "...offers a fair amount of variation in approach and style...valuable material...a useful introduction to some of the major issues in Indonesian  economic history." -Journal of Asian Studies 

#40      Islamic Peasants and the State: The 1908 Anti-Tax Rebellion in West Sumatra, by Ken Young. 392 pp. (1994). Cloth, $35.00; paper, $22.00 
   Addresses issues of importance not only to Southeast Asianists but to anthropologists, political scientists, and Islamists interested in the transformation of the non-Western world on the eve of the twentieth century. 
   Reviewers' Comments:  "...valuable in defining and... filling some serious gaps in recent Minangkabau history...restores the traditional Islamic groups (Sufi brotherhoods) to a place in (this) history which cannot be ignored." -Audrey R. Kahin 

#43     Being Modern in Bali: Image and Change, edited by Adrian Vickers. 246 pp. (1996).  Paper, $20.00
   Eight essays organized around the theme of perceptions of modernity and tradition in Bali; demonstrate the ongoing role of debates about modernity and tradition in Southeast Asia, particularly regarding issues of national and ethnic identity. 
    Reviewers' Comments: “…belongs among (the rare) studies that provide a necessary link between theoretical debate…and actual human experience.”  –Richard O’Connor

#48      Bugis Navigation, by Gene Ammarell.  314 pp.  (1999).  Cloth $38.00; paper $27.00.  An ethnographic study of the indigenous navigational practices of a group of Bugis seafarers in an island village located in the Flores Sea, midway between South Sulawesi and Sumbawa in Indonesia. (Includes four oversized fold-out maps)
    Reviewer Comments: "....a terrific book....will become a benchmark study....a fun read, leaving the reader convinced that nothing could be more interesting than sailing with (the) Balobaloang though Indonesia's star-lit seas."     -E. Tagliacozzo, Indonesia
  ".....fascinating book....excellent collection of maps and figures....One hopes that current ethnographic research on other maritime groups in Indonesia...will be undertaken with this attention to fine, detailed ethnography."     -C. Duncan,  The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology


#53      Seeds of Knowledge: The Beginning of Integrated Pest Management in Java, by Yunita Triwardani Winarto.
430 pp. (2004). Cloth $39.00; paper $28.00
   Examines the process of knowledge construction among rice farmers of the lowland irrigated rice fields on the north coast of West Java ---how the introduction of Integrated Pest management principles led to changes in farmers' knowledge of pests and diseases and subsequently to changes in farming practices as new ideas were incorporated into a body of local knowledge, modified and developed through time.
    Reviewers' Comments: "...This sympathetic ethnographic account of the farmers' struggles will be absorbing reading for anyone interested in the history of Indonesian agriculture. But the central themes about the process by which new knowledge is gained and then passed on to others at the micro level of the village will challenge and provoke anyone interested in issues of social change and development, especially in Indonesia." . -J. Maxwell, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
>Click here or on book cover for additional information

  

MALAYSIA 

#29      From Class to Culture: Social Conscience in Malay Novels since Independence, by David J. Banks. x, 200 pp. (1988).  $17.00 
   Examines the role of the Malay novel in the development of Malay nationalism in the period since Malaysian independence. 
   Reviewers' Comments: "...Banks hits the ball and scores what must be the decade's outstanding critical homerun..." "...an exemplary attempt to understand a culture by listening to its most articulate members." -I. R. Cruz, KINAADMAN 

#38     British Colonial Rule and the Resistance of the Malay Peasantry, 1900-1957, by Donald M. Nonini.  237 pp. (1992).  Cloth, $30.00; paper, $17.00
    The author synthesizes a large body of materials on peasant resistance to British rule on the Malayan peninsula.  He delineates the forms the resistance took, and the emergence and internal differentiation of a "Malay" peasantry. Explanations for the "underdevelopment" of this peasantry are evaluated. 
   Reviewers' Comments: "...a solid synthesis.... -Kenyalang 
 ...well articulated....stimulating reading....pulls together a vast amount of material..." -William Case 
 

PHILIPPINES

#2      Early American-Philippine Trade: The Journal of Nathaniel Bowditch in Manila, 1796, by Thomas P. and Mary C. McHale. viii, 63 pp. (1962).  $4.75 

#16     Philippine Migration: The Settlement of the Digos-Padada Valley, Davao Province, by Paul Simkins and Frederick L. Wernstedt. x, 147 pp. (1971).  $8.50 

#20     Landed Estates in the Colonial Philippines, by Nicholas P. Cushner, S.J. x, 146 pp. (1976).  $11.50 

#21     Perspective on Philippine Historiography: A Symposium, edited by John A. Larkin, iv. 76 pp. (1979).  $9.50 

#27     Manila 1900-1941: Social Change in Late Colonial Metropolis, by Daniel F. Doeppers. 194 pp. (1984).  $14.00 
   Explores the processes and careers which produced and changed the structure of Filipino society in Manila during the American colonial period...focuses particularly on changes in the occupational structure of the Philippine metropolis. 
   Reviewers' Comments:  "...one of the most important contributions to Southeast Asian historical scholarship in many years...imaginative questions....innovative research strategies..." -Glenn A. May 

UP      Perspectives on Philippine Poverty, based on a Conference on Issues on Rural Poverty, Quezon City, July 1992. 145 pp. (1993). Cloth, $17.00; paper, $12.00. 
   A collection of research essays from the fields of economics, sociology and nutrition, analyzing factors associated with rural poverty in the Philippines.  (published: Univ. Philippines) 
 

#56   Fine Description: Ethnographic and Linguistic Essays by Hal Conklin
edited by Joel C. Kuipers and Ray McDermott.
535 pp (2007). Cloth $38.00; Paper $27.00
   This book gathers a significant sample of the classic writings of anthropologist, Harold C. Conklin. As impressive now as when first published, these works present details of agricultural and botanical knowledge, spatial orientation, kinship, verbal play, poetry, and music of the Hanunóo and Ifugao in the Philippines.
   Reviewers' Comments: "Across decades of fieldwork in the Philippines, Harold C. Conklin wrote classic papers for anthropologists working everywhere....It has long been established opinion that (Conklin) is one of the very best fieldworkers in the business...he does it the way it ought to be done...." - Clifford Geertz
"...[For ethnographic theory and method] Conklin managed to anticipate just about every issue that has emerged in the last thirty years..." - M. Anderson
>Click here or on book cover for additional information


!!!NEW! !!

#58   Contested Democracy and the Left in the Philippines
by Nathan Gilbert Quimpo. 405 pp (2008). Cloth $38.00; Paper $27.00
   
  When "people power" toppled Marcos, the Philippines was considered a shining example of the restoration of democracy, but, since 1986, it has encountered obstacles to the deepening of that democracy. Quimpo puts forth the idea of "contested democracy," and argues that deepening democracy involves tyransforming an elite-dominated, formal democracy into a participatory and egalitarian one.
>Click here or on book cover for additional information

SINGAPORE

#14    The People's Action Party of Singapore: Emergence of a Dominant Party System, by Thomas J. Bellows. xii, 195 pp. (1970).  $8.25 
   Chronicles the frenetic political activity of Singapore during the final years of British colonial rule (1950s - 1960s). 

#42     To Catch a Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew's Prison, by Francis T. Seow. 390 pp (1994).  Paper $22.00 
   A semiautobiographical account of Seow's experiences as a government official and his 72-day detention in 1988 for "courting if not colluding" with U.S. Diplomats to build an opposition in Singapore. 
   Reviewers' Comments:  "...a devastating account of the destruction of the rule of law..." -Ian Baruma, The New York Review 
 ...a very necessary book which will affect public perceptions of Singapore." -Margaret John, Amnesty International 

 
#55    Beyond Suspicion? The Singapore Judiciary, by Francis T. Seow. (Foreword by Garry Woodard)
428pp (2006). Cloth $37.00; Paper $26.00

    Reviewers' Comments: "Once again, Francis Seow has revealed, with his usual rigour and attention to detail, a vital part of Singapore's repressive machinery...Human rights campaigners now and historians of the future will regard it as required reading." -Margaret John, Amnesty International
"...(Seow) has not just exposed the judiciary; he has also laid bare the serious limitations of the political system...." " -Garry Rodan
"....an impressive work ...of scholarly and public policy interest...chapter and verse on the politico-legal nexus in Singapore." -Christopher Tremewan
>Click here or on book cover for additional information

THAILAND

#31     A Culture in Search of Survival: The Phuan of Thailand and Laos, by Kennon Breazeale and Snit Smuckarn.  ix, 279 pp. (1988).  $17.00 
   Traces the various vicissitudes, migrations, and forced resettlements of the Phuan people, originally inhabiting the high plateau east of the Mekong River between Laos and Viet Nam, during the 19th century. 
   Reviewers' Comments:  "...an impressive history, based on primary sources...well written...may be regarded as a model of good scholarship, and a step forward in the study of mainland Southeast Asia." -B.J. Terwiel 

#34     Bankers and Bureaucrats: The Development of Capital and the Role of the State in Thailand, by Kevin Hewison. ix, 320 pp. (1989).  Cloth, $30.00; paper, $17.00. 
   Traces the mutually supportive interaction of state and capital in an examination of the evolution of Thai political economy from pre-1855 to the early 1980s. 
   Reviewers' Comments: "...informative, perceptive... substantial and scholarly book..."  -Malcolm Falkus 
 "...challenges and stimulates..." -Ian Brown 
 "...one of the more important texts on Thai political economy to emerge in recent years." -Philip Hirsch 

#37     Analytical Perspectives on Shan Agriculture and Village Economics,  by E. Paul Durrenberger and Nicola Tannenbaum.  vii, 112 pp.  (1991).  Cloth, $25.00; paper, $15.00. 
   This pioneering work analyzes highland and lowland economic, political, and ideological systems. 
   Reveiwers' comments: “…provides a wealth of information on consumption-smoothing strategies in agrarian economies and particularly on how household decisions are conditioned.”  -G.A. Upali Wickramasinghe 

#44    State Power and Culture in Thailand, Edited by E. Paul Durrenberger.  216pp. (1996).  Cloth, $32.00; paper, $20.00. 
   Six anthropologists attempt to understand local events and outlooks in Thailand by examining the relationships between state power and culture in that country.  Their analyses will be of wide interest in all of the social sciences as well as Asian studies and history. 
   Reviewers' comments: “…important reading for professionals and scholars in the field of Asian public and private sector management.”    -Reba Carruth, J. Asian Business 

#51  Tribes of the North Thailand Frontier, by Jane R. Hanks and Lucien M. Hanks.  368pp. (2001).  Cloth, $37.00; paper, $25.00. 
    Examines several Sino-Tibetan tribes on the northern border of Chiangrai Province in Thailand and describes their interaction with their social, ecological, economic and political environments.  The authors use data collected during visits to the area over a period of 15 years. (Includes oversized fold-out map)
  Reviewers' comments: ".....spans mountains and valleys, captures indigenous pluralism, and continues a Boasian tradition of areal ethnography.  In locale, scope, and coherence, we have nothing to match this remarkable study, and, given the changes in scholarship and Southeast Asia, we never will." 
-Richard O'Connor and Cornelia Ann Kammerer
   ".....brilliantly combines a detailed and sympathetic understanding of its subjects....with rigorous and painstaking scholarly standards  .....the definitive book on the peoples of the northern Thai borderlands....(and) an unrivalled panaorama of their changing world." - Mika Toyota, University of Hull

VIETNAM 

#23     Peasant Politics and Religious Sectarianism: Peasant and Priest in the Cao Dai in Viet Nam, by Jayne S. Werner. iv, 123 pp. (1981).  $10.50 
   A brief history of the Cao Dai, a southern "sect" of revolutionary Vietnam, and this country's first nationalist organization, reaching its military peak in 1954. 
   Reviewers' Comments: "...one of the best studies about (the) social phenomenon (of such) religious movements...it will remain a classic..." -Journal of Contemporary Asia 

 
#57    Hoa Lò: Hanoi Hilton Stories
By Nguyên Chí Thiên.
296 pp. (2007). Cloth $37.00; paper $25.00
     Nguyên Chí Thiên crafts seven stories in prose from his experience at the Hanoi central prison - the infamous Hanoi Hilton - where he spent six of a total of twenty-seven years as a political prisoner in Communist Vietnam.
    Reviewers' Comments: "Totalitarianism creates hell on earth. In Nguyen Chi Thien, that hell has found its Dante...a tribute to the power of the human spirit over tyranny and of art over oblivion." - Michael Lind, The New American Foundation
    Editorial Comments: "The austerity, menace and extremity of long imprisonment under conditions that are calculated to defeat the spirit and body have the capacity to produce great literature...a magical blend of...close observation of constrained surroundings and...interior life together with the lyricism that hopeless situations can, pardoxically, produce" -James C. Scott, Yale University
>click here, or on cover image for photos and information about the author

    SEE ALSO: Vietnam Publications, published by 
   Yale University Council on Southeast Asia Studies 
 

SOUTHEAST ASIA (regional, comparative) 

#22      Southeast Asia Under Japanese Occupation, by Alfred W. McCoy.  vi, 250 pp., (1980).  $14.00 
   Introduction and compilation of scholarly essays on five countries, which reassess the transformation thesis of the wartime period (the "Japanese interregnum") previously elaborated upon by Harry J. Benda and others. 
   Reviewers' Comments:  "...nine excellent essays...uniformly good...allows the reader to identify both the distinctive as well as the similar forces that thrust these countries into independence." -Benedict R. Anderson

#36      Reshaping Local Worlds: Formal Education and Cultural Change in Rural Southeast Asia. 
Edited by Charles F. Keyes with Jane Keyes and Nancy Donnelly. viii, 220 pp. (1991).  Cloth $27.00; paper $16.00 
   Seven articles discuss the transformations of local worlds  which have ensued since the introduction of state schools in Java, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. 
   Reviewers' Comments:  An "unusually coherent compilation....unique in its regional focus on rural education as an instrument of culture change in `modernizing' nations."    -Journal of Asian Studies 

 #39     International Commercial Rivalry in Southeast Asia in the Interwar Period, Edited by Shinya Sugiyama and Milagros C. Guerrero. 222 pp. (1994). Cloth $30.00; paper $17.00. 
   A collection of eight essays examining the international economic rivalry in Southeast Asia in the 1920s and 1930s.  Evaluates the significance of Japan's expansion into the area. 
   Reviewers' Comments: "The essays...are well written...well recommended to specialists in Japanese and/or Southeast Asian economic history." -D. Feeny 

#45      Merit and Blessing in Mainland Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective, edited by Cornelia Ann Kammerer and Nicola Tannenbaum.  280 pp. (1997). Cloth $32.00; paper $20.00.
   Through ethnographic and comparative inquiry, nine anthropologists and one historian examine the ideological and social dimensions of merit and blessing in the Southeast Asian mainland.
  Reviewers Comments: "The collection....offers useful and at times provocative insights...while leaving room for healthy debate...concerning the differences and similarities that divide and link the region's diverse societies and peoples."  -M.B. Mills
  "...of interest to scholars ...for its fine-grained ethnographic case studies, and for ...the refinement of theoretical understanding of these societies and their social and religious practices."  - J. DeBernardi

#46      Indigenous Peoples and the State: Politics, Land and Ethnicity in the Malayan Peninsula and Borneo, edited by Robert L. Winzeler.  316 pp. (1998).  Cloth $35.00; paper $22.00. 
   Ten essays explore the differences and similarities among various indigenous minorities of the Malayan Peninsula and Borneo.  All concern the relationshop between indigenous groups and large societies as defined by the state. 
  Reviewers Comments:  "...should interest anyone concerned about minority and ethnic issues in Southeast Asia...most (of the authors) write with sympathy about the peoples they have studied and respected for years, and whose traditional cultures and lifestyles they see threatened..." -C. A. Lockard

#47     Merchants and Migrants: Ethnicity and Trade among Yunnanese Chinese in Southeast Asia, 
by Ann Maxwell Hill. 178 pp., (1998).  $32.00 cloth; $20.00 paper 
     This work on the Yunnanese Chinese and premodern caravan trade illumines hitherto unexplored corners of Southeast Asian history and ethnography.  Hill demonstrates how ethnic identities change in response to both the process of localization and the larger structures of state, region, and their economies. 
  Reviewers Comments:  "...fascinating and original....a welcome addition to the study of the Chinese diaspora, both from an historical and an anthropological perspective.  With this book, Yale Southeast Asia Studies series has continued its generally high standard." - C. Dobbin 

#52    Founders' Cults in Southeast Asia: Ancestors, Polity, and Identity,
edited by Nicola Tannenbaum and Cornelia Ann Kammerer. 376 pp., (2003). $37.00 cloth; $25.00 paper.
     Drawing on ethnographic and comparative inquiry, ten anthropologists explore the founders' cults throughout Southeast Asia. Typically, founders' cults are based on a contract between the original founders of a settlement and the spirit owners of territory cleared for human use. Because these cults are about a group's relationship to a particular place, they reflect local political, historical, and religious changes....including responses to European colonialism; world religions, national integration, and the penetration of global capitalism.  This volume is important because it incorporates both mainland and island Southeast Asia and integrates upland and lowland materials.

#54    Conserving Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia, edited by Michael R. Dove, Percy E. Sajise and Amity Doolittle. 368 pp., (2005) $38.00 cloth; $27.00 paper.
    This volume presents the results of an international, multi-year, collaborative project that focused on Southeast Asia and was designed to transcend orthodox thinking about environmental conservation. In documenting the way that many societies conserve resources in the course of everyday activities, the contributions to this volume question formal, state-led conservation interventions. The planned character of such interventions reintroduces and is often doomed by the vision of a dichotomy between society and environment. The contributions to this volume show how the views of Northern and Southern scholars, of natural scientists and social scientists, can converge on many of these issues but still differ.
    Reviewers Comments: "...much needed conclusions...solid research....anyone working on similar topics....will find much that is useful in this work, particularly as we begin to deal with the 'new' international development agenda on 'poverty and conservation'." -Reed L. Wadley
>Click here or on book cover for additional information