Combining breathtaking, evocative narrative with razor-sharp historical analysis, Bayly and Harper provide a dramatic account of independent Asia's baptism of fire in the turbulent aftermath of the Second World War. They capture in vivid detail the euphoria and trauma that swept the crescent stretching from Calcutta to Singapore as Britain's Asian empire unraveled. This brilliant book is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the history of Britain, Asia and empire. -- Sugata Bose, author of A Hundred Horizons: the Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire Like their earlier collaborative volume, Forgotten Armies, Bayly and Harper's new book presents a fascinating story of Britain's Asian empire in transition. Europeans, Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Burmese, Malays, Indonesians, and many others interacted as they sought to define anew the nature of empire, territory, and citizenship. There is no better way to understand the region's survival and emergence as a center of economic development and prosperity than to revisit the immediate postwar years under the expert guidance provided by Bayly and Harper. -- Akira Iriye, Professor of History Emeritus, Harvard University Forgotten Wars is an insightful and original look at the fate of Britain's Asian Empire in the wake of World War II. Engaging and provocative, the masterful discussion of the Malayan Emergency will be of interest to all concerned with the dilemmas presented by insurgencies in our contemporary world. -- Ronald Spector, author of In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Struggle for a Postwar Asia
Christopher Bayly was Vere Harmsworth Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St Catharine’s College. Tim Harper is Professor of the History of Southeast Asia and Director of the Centre for History and Economics at the University of Cambridge. His books include The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya and, with Christopher Bayly, Forgotten Armies and Forgotten Wars (both from Harvard).
[A] compelling book… An extraordinary cast of characters populate
Forgotten Wars… The authors write that ‘the end of empire is not a
pretty thing if examined too closely,’ but when examined so ably it
is certainly fascinating.
*Wall Street Journal*
Two years after their brilliant and vivid Forgotten Armies: The
Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945, the Cambridge historians Bayly and
Harper produce a sequel that examines Britain’s conflicts in
Southeast Asia in the four years after the Second World War. While
adroitly analyzing Britain’s hard-fought battle against
insurrectionary forces in Malaya, the authors explore lesser-known
episodes: Bengalese and Burmese skirmishes seldom highlighted in
accounts of the Raj’s end, and the British interregnums between the
ends of the Japanese occupations of Indonesia and Vietnam and the
restorations of the respective former colonial administrations.
*The Atlantic*
Extraordinary.
*New Yorker*
Authoritative.
*New Yorker*
The authors are particularly good in their analysis of the problems
of state building, on the one hand, and nation building, on the
other.
*Foreign Affairs*
Historians Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper chronicle the ensuing
struggles for Britain’s Southeast Asian colonies in Forgotten Wars:
Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia, the sequel to their
much-praised history of Britain’s Asian empire during World War II,
Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945. Primarily a
diplomatic and political history rather than a military history,
the new book focuses on the causes of armed conflict. After Japan’s
capitulation, Messrs. Bayly and Harper contend, Southeast Asia
remained in a state of war for the same reasons it had entered into
such a state: poverty, imperialism, and ethnic, religious, and
ideological conflict. The authors have mined a very large number of
sources. Most of their new historical unearthing can be found in
the intricacies of Southeast Asian politics, which they describe in
great detail and with careful nuance. Those deeply interested in
the politics of Burma or Malaysia or other Southeast Asian
countries will find much to delight them here.
*New York Sun*
This book is neither an old-fashioned ‘top down’ history of
imperial politics in the region, nor a regional ‘bottom up’ account
of nationalist resistance to European rule. Rather, it shows how
British illusions about the nature of Britain’s power in Southeast
Asia collided with Asian national movements. This book addresses an
important phase of that tragic history, for which, as the authors
show, Britain bore considerable responsibility.
*American Historical Review*
Forgotten Wars movingly brings out the travails of ordinary people
who got caught up within a vicious cycle of political turmoil,
economic deprivation, and violence. This is a ‘must read’ for those
interested in histories of British imperialism and decolonization
in Asia and those who would like an introduction to the comparative
regional histories of nation-states in Southeast Asia after
1945.
*Journal of British Studies*
Combining breathtaking, evocative narrative with razor-sharp
historical analysis, Bayly and Harper provide a dramatic account of
independent Asia’s baptism of fire in the turbulent aftermath of
the Second World War. They capture in vivid detail the euphoria and
trauma that swept the crescent stretching from Calcutta to
Singapore as Britain’s Asian empire unraveled. This brilliant book
is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the history of
Britain, Asia and empire.
*Sugata Bose, author of A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in
the Age of Global Empire*
Like their earlier collaborative volume, Forgotten Armies, Bayly
and Harper’s new book presents a fascinating story of Britain’s
Asian empire in transition. Europeans, Americans, Chinese,
Japanese, Indians, Burmese, Malays, Indonesians, and many others
interacted as they sought to define anew the nature of empire,
territory, and citizenship. There is no better way to understand
the region’s survival and emergence as a center of economic
development and prosperity than to revisit the immediate postwar
years under the expert guidance provided by Bayly and Harper.
*Akira Iriye, Professor of History Emeritus, Harvard
University*
Forgotten Wars is an insightful and original look at the fate of
Britain’s Asian Empire in the wake of World War II. Engaging and
provocative, the masterful discussion of the Malayan Emergency will
be of interest to all concerned with the dilemmas presented by
insurgencies in our contemporary world.
*Ronald Spector, author of In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese
Surrender and the Struggle for a Postwar Asia*
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