'… the authors convey in remarkably clear terms the complexity of the entire region's dynamics during the early modern age. Their coherent narrative will no doubt help bring Southeast Asian developments into the flourishing field of world history.' Pierre-Yves Manguin, Emeritus Professor, Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient/Centre Asie du Sud-Est (EHESS-CNRS) 'This is a stunningly ambitious, comprehensive and insightful overview of pre-modern ... Read moreSoutheast Asia. It will serve both to energize regional specialists and to introduce the region to a wider public. A landmark history greatly to be welcomed.' Victor Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Southeast Asian History, University of Michigan 'For once, the term magnum opus is truly appropriate for the Andayas' stunning achievement. An ambitious and sweeping history reflecting their vast learning, a sure grasp of both region-wide developments and local adaptations, and an eye for the telling detail. No history of early-modern Southeast Asia is likely to surpass this high intellectual standard for the foreseeable future. We are all in their debt.' James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University, Connecticut 'The Andayas have done a magnificent service for programs seeking to expand their global history offerings and craft courses that will build on the world history survey to provide depth for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The book's vivid narrative interweaves political, cultural and economic history, with the men and women who made that history at the core of the story, but the physical environment of seas and forests ever-present as a force as well. Each chronological chapter is clearly laid out in a structure that moves from the global context to Southeast Asia as a whole to various sub-regions, allowing students and other readers to examine this key part of the early modern world at a range of geographic scales. Instructors who are not themselves historians of Southeast Asia could easily use this overview to anchor a course as they explore new areas for teaching, and departments could use it as a model for how to redesign their course array into a more comparative, coherent and connected whole.' Merry Weisner-Hanks, Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Show Less