Descending Dragon, Rising Tiger: A History of Vietnam

Hong Lien Vu; Peter D Sharrock

ISBN 10: 1780233647 / ISBN 13: 9781780233642

Published by Reaktion Books, 2014

About this Item

290 pages, illustrations : 24 cm. Except for in terms of the Vietnam War, Vietnam's history remains significantly under-studied. In this comprehensive book, Vu Hong Lien and Peter Sharrock chronicle the vast sweep of the region's tumultuous past, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Historians writing about Vietnam have defined the country as either a ragged Chinese subordinate aspiring to a full 'Chinese' way of life, or as a rebel Chinese province defined entirely by its shaky relationship to its looming neighbour. Yet archaeological evidence now shows culturally distinct and technologically sophisticated human occupation in the region from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Unshackled from the confined histories of outsiders, imperial invaders and occupiers, the history of Vietnam is revealed as central to the cultural, political and ethnic development of Southeast Asia over the past millennia. With a scope unrivalled in previous accounts, Descending Dragon, Rising Tiger is a definitive history of the Vietnamese people, culture and nation.

Seller Inventory # 14jbew801

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Descending Dragon, Rising Tiger: A History of Vietnam
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1780233647
• ISBN 13: 9781780233642
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Archaeology
  • Southeast Asia

About this title

Synopsis

Outside of its war with the United States, Vietnam’s past has often been neglected and understudied. Whether as an aspiring subordinate or a rebel province, Vietnam has been viewed by most historians in relation to its larger neighbor to the north, China. Seeking to reshape these accounts, Descending Dragon, Rising Tiger chronicles the vast sweep of Vietnam’s tumultuous history, from the Bronze Age to the present day, in order to lay out the first English-language account of the full story of the Vietnamese people.
             
Drawing on archeological evidence that reveals the emergence of a culturally distinct human occupation of the region up to 10,000 years ago, Vu Hong Lien and Peter D. Sharrock show that these early societies had a sophisticated agricultural and technological culture much earlier than previously imagined. They explore the great variety of cultures that have existed in this territory, unshackling them from the confined histories of outsiders, imperial invaders, and occupiers in order to show that the country has been central to the cultural, political, and ethnic development of Southeast Asia for millennia. Unrivaled in scope, this comprehensive account will be the definitive history of the Vietnamese people, their culture, and their nation.

About the Author

Vu Hong Lien is a Vietnamese-British historian who has written widely on the history of Southeast Asia. She is the author of Royal Hue: Heritage of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam and lives in London. Peter D. Sharrock is a senior teaching fellow in the history of art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Both authors are former journalists who covered the Vietnamese-American War.