Neil L. Jamieson
Understanding Vietnam
A Philip E. Lilienthal Book in Asian Studies
$25.95, £17.95 paperback
9780520201576
Available Now
428 pages,
March 1995, Available worldwide
Also in: Southeast Asian History; Southeast Asian Studies
March 1995, Available worldwide
Also in: Southeast Asian History; Southeast Asian Studies
Free online edition (eScholarship)--available only to University of California faculty, staff, and students (List of public titles)
The American experience in Vietnam divided us as a nation and eroded our confidence in both the morality and the effectiveness of our foreign policy. Yet our understanding of this tragic episode remains superficial because, then and now, we have never grasped the passionate commitment with which the Vietnamese clung to and fought over their own competing visions of what Vietnam was and what it might become. To understand the war, we must understand the Vietnamese, their culture, and their ways of looking at the world. Neil L. Jamieson, after many years of living and working in Vietnam, has written the book that provides this understanding.
Jamieson paints a portrait of twentieth-century Vietnam. Against the background of traditional Vietnamese culture, he takes us through the saga of modern Vietnamese history and Western involvement in the country, from the coming of the French in 1858 through the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Throughout his analysis, he allows the Vietnamese—both our friends and foes, and those who wished to be neither—to speak for themselves through poetry, fiction, essays, newspaper editorials and reports of interviews and personal experiences.
By putting our old and partial perceptions into this new and broader context, Jamieson provides positive insights that may perhaps ease the lingering pain and doubt resulting from our involvement in Vietnam. As the United States and Vietnam appear poised to embark on a new phase in their relationship, Jamieson's book is particularly timely.
Jamieson paints a portrait of twentieth-century Vietnam. Against the background of traditional Vietnamese culture, he takes us through the saga of modern Vietnamese history and Western involvement in the country, from the coming of the French in 1858 through the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Throughout his analysis, he allows the Vietnamese—both our friends and foes, and those who wished to be neither—to speak for themselves through poetry, fiction, essays, newspaper editorials and reports of interviews and personal experiences.
By putting our old and partial perceptions into this new and broader context, Jamieson provides positive insights that may perhaps ease the lingering pain and doubt resulting from our involvement in Vietnam. As the United States and Vietnam appear poised to embark on a new phase in their relationship, Jamieson's book is particularly timely.
"Quite simply the most insightful interpretation of Vietnam ever to appear anywhere. No other book touches such vital issues; no other book explains so much; no other book is as important."—Leonard Bushkoff, Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly
"Discloses what the American military and political leadership largely misunderstood: the nature of Vietnamese society, the confrontation with colonialism and Western values, the resistance of the intellectuals, and the culture of the people."—Herbert Mitgang, New York Times
"Jamieson ranges over the entire sweep of Vietnamese political culture, using as his window of observation the past century's Vietnamese literary output. There is nothing quite like this in print."—Indochina Chronology
"Discloses what the American military and political leadership largely misunderstood: the nature of Vietnamese society, the confrontation with colonialism and Western values, the resistance of the intellectuals, and the culture of the people."—Herbert Mitgang, New York Times
"Jamieson ranges over the entire sweep of Vietnamese political culture, using as his window of observation the past century's Vietnamese literary output. There is nothing quite like this in print."—Indochina Chronology
Preface
1. How the Vietnamese See the World
2. Confrontation with the West, 1858-1930
3. The Yin of Early Modern Vietnamese Culture Challenges the Yang of Tradition, 1932-1939
4. The End of Colonialism and the Emergence of Two Competing Models for Building a Modern Nation, 1940-1954
5. Yin and Yang in Modern Guise, 1955-1970
6. Continuity and Change in Vietnamese Culture and Society, 1968-1975
7. Another Cycle Unfolds
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
1. How the Vietnamese See the World
2. Confrontation with the West, 1858-1930
3. The Yin of Early Modern Vietnamese Culture Challenges the Yang of Tradition, 1932-1939
4. The End of Colonialism and the Emergence of Two Competing Models for Building a Modern Nation, 1940-1954
5. Yin and Yang in Modern Guise, 1955-1970
6. Continuity and Change in Vietnamese Culture and Society, 1968-1975
7. Another Cycle Unfolds
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
1994 Outstanding Academic Book, American Library Association
Asian Cultural Anthropology Bestsellers
