Communication in Southeast Asia and its Influence

Bellwood, Peter. "The Prehistory of Island Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Review of Recent Research." Journal of World History 1 (1987): 171–224. Useful background on prehistory of region.

Chandler, David P. A History of Cambodia. 2nd ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1992.

Christie, Clive J. A Modern History of Southeast Asia: Decolonization, Nationalism, and Separatism. London and New York: Tauris Academic Studies, 1996.

Ebihara, May M., Carol A. Mortland, and Judy Ledgerwood. Cambodian Culture since 1975: Homeland and Exile. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Evans, Grant, ed. Laos: Culture and Society. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 1999. This is a useful collection of essays on Lao language and culture.

Ginsburg, Faye D., Lila Abu-Lughod, and Brian Larkin, eds. Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. See particularly essays by Annette Hamilton, Mark Hobart, Rosalind C. Morris, and Louisa Schein.

Higham, Charles. "The Later Prehistory of Mainland Southeast Asia." Journal of World Prehistory 3 (1989): 235–282. Useful for overview of ethnic groups and languages.

Marr, David G. Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. Fascinating discussion of how romanized Vietnamese script became the vehicle for literacy and popular debate between the 1920s and the 1940s, developing along with the nationalist movement. Has an excellent chapter on women.

McDaniel, Drew. Electronic Tigers of Southeast Asia: The Politics of Media, Technology, and National Development. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 2002.

Reid, Anthony. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680. 2 vols. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988–1993.

Somers Heidhues, Mary. Southeast Asia: A Concise History. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000.