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C. Lockard: Southeast Asia in World History
Lockard, Craig: Southeast Asia in World History. New York: Oxford University Press 2009.
ISBN: 978-0-19-516075-8; 256 S.
Rezensiert von: Akiko Sugiyama, Department of History, University of Macau
Does Southeast Asia constitute a region?
Generations of scholars have grappled with
Southeast Asia’s unity and diversity.1 Home
to eleven countries, Southeast Asia boasts
of religious, linguistic, and ethnic pluralism.
Such an eclectic outlook can be easily taken
as the absence of „common traditions“ (p. 2)
comparable to those in South Asia, the Middle East, or Europe. At the same time, a
host of travelogues and ethnographies have
described commonalities in climate, diet, material culture, and social organization (that is,
bilateral kinship) that are distinct from those
of neighboring India or China.2 These conceptual discussions have been instrumental in
establishing „Southeast“ as a unit of academic
study during the last several decades.3
Southeast Asia in World History by Craig
A. Lockard, currently Ben and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of History at the University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay, brings a fresh perspective to the much-debated regional identity of Southeast Asia. Building on his extensive research and writing in Southeast
Asian history and world history (his recent
publications include a comprehensive world
history textbook4 ), Lockard presents a compelling synthesis of Southeast Asia that warrants attention in world history. Southeast
Asia in World History is an account of connections, exchanges, and interactions of peoples, ideas, influences, and commodities from
earliest times to the present. With the trajectory of world history, Lockard effectively
reorients the long-standing discussion on regional identity from the pursuit of (or lack of)
common traditions to an illustration of a region that is dynamic, evolving, and interconnected with the wider world.
Eleven chapters are in a loose chronological order. Each opens with an introductory
vignette followed by quotes and summaries
of leading publications. Chapter 1, „The Ancient Roots of Southeast Asia to ca. 200 BCE,“
highlights the initial peopling of Southeast
2012-1-233
Asia, the development of agriculture, metallurgy, and early belief systems, and Austronesian migrations into much of coastal Southeast Asia. Seafaring and maritime trade facilitated by the stable monsoon winds were „major forces“ in the development of early societies and cultures (p. 15). The chapter also
highlights the evolving settlement patterns
in highlands and lowlands with the former
marked by shifting cultivation and the latter
by labor-intensive, wet-rice agriculture. Subsequent chapters describe the development of
complex societies and major kingdoms in and
around the populous rice-growing regions.
The expanding maritime network, encompassing the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and South
China Sea, spread Indian influences in religion (Hinduism, Buddhism), culture, and politics into Southeast Asia (Chapter 2, „Southeast Asians in the Classical World, ca. 200
BCE–800 CE“). By mixing Indian ideas with
local traditions, or a process known as „Indianization“ (p. 21), the Mons, Khmers, Chams,
and Javanese built urban centers and early
states. The chapter also features Chinese influence in northern Vietnam during a millennium of colonial rule starting in 111 BCE.
The blending of Indian and Chinese influences with „local creativity“ (p. 34) reached
a golden age with the formation of distinct
polities, such as Champa, Angkor, Pagan,
Srivijaya, Madjapahit, and Dai Viet (Chapter 3, „The Kingdoms of the Golden Age,
ca. 800–1400“). The gradual demise of the
largely Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms led
to a new era in Southeast Asia’s connections
to the wider world. As examined in Chapter 4, „New Cultures and Connections, ca.
1300–1750,“ most of Southeast Asia had be1 See,
for example, O. W. Wolters, History, Culture, and
Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives, 2nd edition,
Ithaca 1999.
2 Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce
1450–1680, Volume 1 „The Lands below the Winds“,
New Haven 1988, pp. 1–10.
3 Recent discussions include: Barbara Watson Andaya,
The Unity of Southeast Asia. Historical Approaches
and Questions, in: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
28 (1997) 1, p. 161–71; Ruth McVey, Reynolds J. Craig,
Southeast Asian Studies. Reorientations, Ithaca 1998;
Victor T. King, Southeast Asia. An Anthropological
Field of Study?, in: Moussons 3 (2001) 3, p. 3–32.
4 Craig A. Lockard, Societies, Networks, and Transitions.
A Global History, 2nd edition, Wadsworth 2011.
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come part of „three broad social and cultural
spheres“ by the fifteenth century centering
on Theravada Buddhism, Islam, and Confucian Vietnam (p. 52). Chapter 5, „Christians,
Spices, and Western Expansion, 1500–1750,“
brings into focus Southeast Asia’s burgeoning
spice trade and early interactions with European traders and missionaries.
The next three chapters are set in a period of far-reaching global integration.
Chapter 6, „The Western Winds of Colonialism, 1750–1914,“ outlines Dutch, British,
and French annexation of the Indonesian
archipelago, Malaya and Burma, and Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, respectively.
Meanwhile, Southeast Asians were asserting autonomy through literary movement
(Burma), diplomacy and modernization
(Siam), and the nascent nationalism in the
Spanish and later American Philippines (pp.
108–114). Chapter 7, „Colonial Impact and
Changing Fortunes, 1800–1941,“ discusses the
transformation of Southeast Asia’s political
economy through the imposition of capitalist
production, cash-crop farming, and bureaucratic apparatuses under Western dominance.
As illuminated in Chapter 8, „Fighting for the
Cause of National Freedom, 1900–1950,“ the
disruption of livelihoods and the exploitation
of resources under Western colonialism and
the Japanese Occupation led to full-blown
nationalist activities across the region.
Chapter 9, „Revolutionary Wars and Nation Building, 1950–1975,“ further illuminates
Southeast Asia’s revolutionary and diplomatic struggles to achieve and secure independence. Chapter 10, „Diverse Identities,
‘Tigers,’ and Changing Politics since 1970,“
discusses comparatively the challenges and
successes of economic development, industrialization, and democratic reforms.
The concluding chapter, „Southeast Asia
and the Wider World,“ recaptures Southeast
Asia’s vibrant past and present that stems
from creative and selective mixing of „old,
new, local and imported“ (pp. 202, 205)
and sustained contributions to the globalizing
economy and culture.
Lockard’s Southeast Asia in World History
is concisely written and substantially detailed
in just under 300 pages. The accessibility
of the text sets this book apart from more
robust regional histories, such as the twovolume and coauthored Cambridge History
of Southeast Asia 5 and a recent addition, A
New History of Southeast Asia.6 The comprehensive coverage spanning from prehistoric
times to the present is in marked contrast to a
comparable introductory text, such as Milton
Osborne’s Southeast Asia: An Introductory
History, which focuses largely on the eighteenth century onward after the arrival of Europeans.7 Moreover, Lockard’s balanced approach weaves together an array of patterns,
parallels, and particulars. As such, his volume breaks conceptually and methodologically from earlier history surveys in which
encyclopedic narratives of civilizations and
nation-states take precedence over comparisons and interconnections.8
Opting to write a comprehensive regional history through themes and comparisons rather than through country chapters,
Lockard makes inevitable compromises with
the depth of coverage. At times, the text lacks
flow, and interregional comparisons and parallels are made spontaneously with little or
no elaboration. To take one example, Chapter 4, „The Kingdoms of the Golden Age, ca.
800–1400“ makes an analogy between Southeast Asia, on the one hand, and Europe and
Japan, on the other hand, in the way new
ideas were adopted and adapted. Yet Lockard
does not offer relevant examples on the latter
to substantiate the comparison (p.35).
A couple of editorial shortcomings, along
with a typo on page 45, also deserve mention. Although the index (pp. 227–256) is
sufficiently detailed, the absence of a glossary
may leave some readers stranded, especially
first-time readers of Southeast Asian history.
The inclusion of a chronology table in each
chapter could enhance the readability of the
text. Chronology (pp. 207–208) is outlined
too broadly and omits major regime changes
and political reforms since the 1980s, although
5 Nicholas
Tarling (ed.), The Cambridge History of
Southeast Asia, Cambridge 1992.
6 M. C. Ricklefs / Bruce Lockhart, et al., A New History
of Southeast Asia, Basingstoke 2010.
7 Milton Osborne, Southeast Asia. An Introductory History, 10th edition, Sydney 2010.
8 Rhoads Murphey, A History of Asia, 5th edition, White
Plains 2008.
© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved.
C. Lockard: Southeast Asia in World History
there is extensive coverage of these subjects in
Chapter 10.
Lockard’s Southeast Asia in World History
captures the gist of Southeast Asian history
and is the most accessible single-volume survey history thus far available on the subject. It
is highly recommended for readers of all levels who have an interest in Southeast Asia.
HistLit 2012-1-233 / Akiko Sugiyama über
Lockard, Craig: Southeast Asia in World
History.
New York 2009, in: H-Soz-Kult
30.03.2012.
© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved.
2012-1-233