Vietnam: A New History

The definitive history of modern Vietnam and its diverse and divided past.

“The best one-volume history of modern Vietnam in English.” ―Wall Street Journal

In Vietnam, Christopher Goscha tells the full history of Vietnam, from antiquity to the present day. Generations of emperors, rebels, priests, and colonizers left complicated legacies in this remarkable country. Periods of Chinese, French, and Japanese rule reshaped and modernized Vietnam, but so too did the colonial enterprises of the Vietnamese themselves as they extended their influence southward from the Red River Delta. Over the centuries, numerous kingdoms, dynasties, and states have ruled over―and fought for―what is now Vietnam.

The bloody Cold War-era conflict between Ho Chi Minh's communist-backed Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the American-backed Republic of Vietnam was only the most recent instance when war divided and transformed Vietnam.

A major achievement, Vietnam offers the grand narrative of the country's complex past and the creation of the modern state of Vietnam. It is the definitive single-volume history for anyone seeking to understand Vietnam today.

Christopher Goscha is professor of history at the Université du Québec à Montréal. The author and editor of numerous books on Southeast Asia and international relations in English and French, he lives in Montreal, Canada.