Bibliographic Information

Việt Nam : a history from earliest times to the present

Ben Kiernan

Oxford University Press, 2019, c2017

  • : pbk

Available at  / 2 libraries

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Note

"First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2019"--T.p. verso

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

For many Westerners, the name Vietnam evokes images of a bloody televised American war that generated a firestorm of protest and brought conflict into their living rooms. In his sweeping account, Ben Kiernan broadens this vision by narrating the rich history of the peoples who have inhabited the land now known as Viet Nam over the past three thousand years. Despite the tragedies of the American-Vietnamese conflict, Viet Nam has always been much more than a war. Its long history had been characterized by the frequent rise and fall of different political formations, from ancient chiefdoms to imperial provinces, from independent kingdoms to divided regions, civil wars, French colonies, and modern republics. In addition to dramatic political transformations, the region has been shaped by its environment, changing climate, and the critical importance of water, with rivers, deltas, and a long coastline facilitating agricultural patterns, trade, and communications. Kiernan weaves together the many narrative strands of Viet Nam's multi-ethnic populations, including the Chams, Khmers, and Vietnamese, and its multi-religious heritage, from local spirit cults to Buddhism, Confucianism, and Catholicism. He emphasizes the peoples' interactions over the millennia with foreigners, particularly their neighbors in China and Southeast Asia, in engagements ranging from military conflict to linguistic and cultural influences. He sets the tumultuous modern period-marked by French and Japanese occupation, anticolonial nationalism, the American-Vietnamese war, and communist victory-against the continuities evident in the deeper history of the people's relationships with the lands where they have lived. In contemporary times, he explores this one-party state's transformation into a global trading nation, the country's tense diplomatic relationship with China and developing partnership with the United States in maintaining Southeast Asia's regional security, and its uncertain prospects for democracy. Written by a leading scholar of Southeast Asia, Viet Nam presents an authoritative history of an ancient land.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations Note on Spelling Preface Introduction Part I: Chiefdoms Ch. 1 Water, Rice, and Bronze: Prehistoric Viet Nam Part II: Provinces Ch. 2 Calming the Waves: Imperial Conquest and Indigenization, 221 BCE-540 CE Ch. 3 Mountains and Rivers of the South: Annam and its Neighbors, 6th-10th Centuries Part III: Kingdoms Ch. 4 "Rice from the Sky": Assembling the Spirits of Dai Viet, 940-1340 Ch. 5 Smooth-Flowing Waters of Government: The Triumph of Confucianism, 1340-1570 Part IV: Regions Ch. 6 Contending Shogunates: Inner and Outer Regions, 1570-1770 Ch. 7 Alternative Unifications: Rebellion and Restoration, 1771-1859 Part V: Colonies Ch. 8 "World Trends" and French Conquest, 1860-1920 Ch. 9 Writing and Revolution from Colonialism to Independence, 1920-1954 Part VI: Republics Ch. 10 The American-Vietnamese War, 1954-1975 Ch. 11 The Making of Contemporary Viet Nam, 1975-2015 Epilogue Notes Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BB31339694
  • ISBN
    • 9780190053796
  • LCCN
    2016035618
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    New York
  • Pages/Volumes
    xvi, 621 p., [16] p. of plates
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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