Việt Nam : a history from earliest times to the present

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Title:

Việt Nam : a history from earliest times to the present

Author:

Kiernan, Ben, author.

ISBN:

9780195160765

Personal Author:

Kiernan, Ben, author.

Physical Description:

xvi, 621 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Abstract:

This comprehensive work traces Viet Nam's history, a narrative of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious heritage, from ancient chiefdoms to imperial provinces, from independent kingdoms to contending regions, civil wars, French colonies, and modern republics.

Contents:

Part One: Chiefdoms. Water, Rice, and Bronze: Prehistoric Việt Nam -- Part Two: Provinces. Calming the Waves: Imperial Conquest and Indigenization, 221 BCE-540 CE ; Mountains and Rivers of the Southern Kingdom: Annam and Its Neighbors, Sixth to Tenth Centuries -- Part Three: Kingdoms. "Rice from the Sky": Assembling the Spirits of Đại Việt, 940-1340 ; Smooth-Flowing Waters of Government: The Triumph of Confucianism, 1340-1570 -- Part Four: Regions. Inner and Outer Regions: Contending Shogunates, 1570-1770 ; Alternative Unifications: Rebellion and Restoration, 1771-1859 -- Part Five: Colonies. "World Trends" and French Conquest, 1860-1920 ; Writing and Revolution from Colonialism to Independence, 1920-54 -- Part Six: Republics. The American-Vietnamese War, 1954-75 ; The Making of Contemporary Việt Nam, 1975-2016.

Chiefdoms. Water, rice, and bronze : prehistoric Việt Nam -- Provinces. Calming the waves : imperial conquest and indigenization, 221 BCE-540 CE -- Mountains and rivers of the Southern Kingdom : Annam and its neighbors, sixth to tenth centuries -- Kingdoms. "Rice from the sky" : assembling the spirits of Đại Việt, 940-1340 -- Smooth-flowing waters of government : the triumph of Confucianism, 1340-1570 -- Regions. Inner and outer regions : contending shogunates, 1570-1770 -- Alternative unifications : rebellion and restoration, 1771-1859 -- Colonies. "World trends" and French conquest, 1860-1920 -- Writing and revolution from colonialism to independence, 1920-54 -- Republics. The American-Vietnamese War, 1954-75 -- The making of contemporary Việt Nam, 1975-2016.

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Summary

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.

Reviews (2)

Choice Review

Kiernan (Yale) departs from nationalist narratives to investigate the changing cultural, political, and ecological relations of the multiethnic communities that inhabited the diverse regions of Vietnam. His deep historical study exposes the folly of reducing Vietnam to a war, a metaphor of US imperialism, or the experiences of one ethnicity. Adopting a long-term approach that combines microhistory and macrohistory to decipher the multicausal forces driving historical processes, the author examines a time span of 3,000 years, beginning with the first Bronze Age chiefdoms and ending with the changing fortunes of the contemporary nation-state. Kiernan compares continuities in structures of the longue durée--mainly language, environment, and clan social organization--with seven major historical transformations, including most notably Chinese imperial conquest, transregional migration, climate change, and the recent globalization of Vietnam's economy. He argues that the northern (Vietnamese), central (Cham), and southern lowlands (Khmer) were characterized by distinct histories and identifies six broad political eras that conformed to specific political formations (chiefdoms, provinces, kingdoms, etc.). The analysis is innovative for incorporating the roles of climate, water, and geography in explanations of historical continuity or change and for making ample use of archaeological and textual source materials. Valuable for both newcomers and experts in Vietnamese history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries. --Edward R. Swenson, University of Toronto

Library Journal Review

Kiernan (history, Yale Univ.; Genocide and Resistance in Southeast Asia) offers a comprehensive overview of Vietnamese history from prehistoric times to the 21st century. The author organizes Vietnam's history into six chronological parts based broadly on the political organization of the era (chiefdoms, provinces, kingdoms, regions, colonies, republics). A distinctive quality of this work is its inclusion of environmental and linguistic history. The author effectively explains how geography and changing weather patterns (droughts, etc.) impacted historical development and demonstrates how changes in language over time provides information about Vietnam's past, covering similar terrain as Christopher Goscha's Vietnam: A New History. While Kiernan provides more thorough coverage of Vietnam's early history before French colonization, Gosha supplies a more detailed accounting of the French colonial period (1862-1954). Both works competently address Vietnam's ethnic and religious diversity. VERDICT Essential for all students of Vietnamese history. Extensive descriptions of Vietnam's relations with its neighbors also makes this valuable reading for those interested in Chinese or Southeast Asian history.-Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.