South East Asia

Makers of the Modern World: The peace conferences of 1919-23 and their aftermath
By Andrew Dalby

Southeast Asia needs to be dealt with as a whole, because, although the one national delegation from the region (Siam) took a minor part, nationalist movements in several Southeast Asian countries reached an early climax – significant though inconclusive – in the years 1919-1920. The planned Peace Conference, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the victory of Communism in Russia, all contributed to this activity, and in spite of national differences it needs to be seen as a whole.

The  focus of the book will be on developments around 1919; thus it will bring out for the first time  the unexpected significance for South-east Asia of the 1919 milestone. It  will also  have a biographical bias – taking a special interest in the personalities of  major figures in this important period, in order to show the influences and the patterns of thought that underlie their activities at the time of the Peace Conference.

Following a brief introduction making the link between world events in 1919 and South-east Asia, the  book sets the scene in the region. Succeeding chapters deal with the five  countries – Siam, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia, Philippines – in which the years  1919–21 were of special significance, as well as the impact of the peace  conferences in relationships with their neighbours, the growth of  international Communism and global politics in later years.  
 
 
 
Andrew  Dalby is  a historian and linguist, who has published a number  of biographies of classical figures, including Homer, Bacchus  and Venus. He has also written on the social history of languages and  food history, including the  acclaimed book Siren  Feasts: a history of food and gastronomy in Greece (1996), which won the Runciman Prize, and has produced  numerous academic papers.  He  is also the author of a Guide  to Reference Material on South  East Asia  (1993)  and contributed to Explorers of  Southeast Asia (1995).

'Andrew Dalby has written a lively history of the rise of independence movements in five South East Asian countries - Burma (Mayanmar), the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Siam (Thailand) - in the early twentieth century (...) This book certainly deserves a place in the Makers of the Modern World series. Added bonuses are a chonology and suggestions for further readings. The publishers are to be congratulated for including South East Asia in the series.' - JRAS