Book Reviews

Review essays | Reviews for academic journals | Reviews for the Courier-Mail | Reviews for Mekong Review

(a) Review essays

  • Review essay: Yves Goudineau and Michel Lorrillard, eds: Recherches nouvelles sur le Laos/New Research on Laos. Études thématiques 18. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 2008. Journal of Lao Studies 1 (1), 2010, 105-118. [PDF]
  • Review essay: The Last Century of Lao Royalty: A Documentary History by Grant Evans. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2009. Journal of the Siam Society 98, 2010, 272-278. [PDF]
  • Review essay: The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection, by W. G. Runciman. “Constructing a selectionist paradigm” History and Theory 50 (2), 2011, 229-242. [PDF]
  • Review essay: Before the Quagmire: American Intervention in Laos 1954–1961 by William J. Rust and The Universe Unraveling: American Foreign Policy in Cold War Laos by Seth Jacobs. Intelligence and National Security 29, 1, 2014, 150-156. [PDF]
  • Review essay: Embodied Nation: Sport, Masculinity, and the Making of Modern Laos by Simon Creak. Journal of the Siam Society 104, 2016, 293-300. [PDF]

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(b) Reviews for academic journals

  • Review of The Vietnam Forum: A Review of Vietnamese Culture, No. 1 (Winter-Spring 1983), Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University, New Haven. Editor: Huynh Sanh Thong. Asian Studies Association of Australia Review, vol. 7, no. 3, (1984): 141-143.
  • Review of Poppies, Pipes and People: Opium and Its Use in Laos, by Joseph Westermeyer. Third World Quarterly, 7, 1, 1985, 189-190. [PDF]
  • Review of Cambodia: 1975-1982, by Michael Vickery. Australian Journal of Politics and History 31, 3, 1985, 552-554.
  • Review of Apprentice Revolutionaries: The Communist Movement in Laos, 1930-1985 by MacAlister Brown and Joseph J. Zasloff. Pacific Affairs 60, 1, 1987, 146-147.
  • Review of Red Brotherhood at War by Grant Evans and Kevin Rowley. Australian Journal of Politics and History. 33, 2, 1987, 157-157.
  • Review of Evolution and the Humanities by David Holbrook. The Centennial Review 32 (3) 1988, 318-319. [PDF]
  • Review of Le complot de Chinaimo (1945-1955), by Jean Deuve. SEARMG Newsletter, 35, 1988, 52-53.
  • Review of Thai Radical Discourse, by Craig Reynolds, Australian Journal of Politics and History 35, 2, 1989, 307-308
  • Review of Postwar Vietnam, edited by David Marr and Christine White. Australian Journal of Politics and History 35, 3, 1989, 480.
  • Review of A Culture in Search of Survival: The Phuan of Thailand and Laos, by Snit Smuckarn, Kennon Breazeale. Australian Journal of Politics and History 35, 3, 1989, 482-483.
  • Review of Filipino Politics: Development and Decay, by David Wurful, Australian Journal of Politics and History 35, 3, 1989, 483-484.
  • Review of Singapour 1959-1987: Genèse d’un nouveau pays industriel, by Jean-Louis Margolin, Australian Journal of Politics and History 35, 3, 1989, 484-485.
  • Review of Pol Pot Plans the Future: Confidential leadership documents from Democratic Kampuchea 1976-1977, edited by David P. Chandler, Ben Kiernan and Chantou Boua, and Beyond the Horizon: Five Years with the Khmer Rouge by Laurence Picq. All Asia Review of Books, 1 (9) March 1990, 7-8.
  • Review of Agrarian Change in Communist Laos, by Grant Evans, and Political Struggles in Laos (1930-1954), by Geoffrey C. Gunn. Asian Studies Review 13 (3), 1990, 169-171.
  • Review of The Origins of the Vietnam War, by Anthony Short. Australian Journal of Politics and History 36, 3, 1990, 486-487.
  • Review of Power, Modernity and Sociology, by Raymond Aron. Australian Journal of Politics and History 36, 3, 1990. 501-502.
  • Review of That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession by Peter Novick. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 21 (2), 1991, 287-290. [PDF]
  • Reviews of The Nature of Historical Knowledge, by Michael Stanford, Making History, by Alex Callinicos, and The Nature of History, by Arthur Marwick. Australian Journal of Politics and History 37 (1), 1991, 180-182.
  • Review of Cambodia: A Book for People Who Find Television Too Slow, by Brian Fawcett, Asian Studies Review, 15 1991, 233-234.
  • Review of The Tragedy of Cambodian History, by David Chandler. Australian Journal of Politics and History 38 (1), 1992, 131-133
  • Review of The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945, By Stein Tønnesson. Asian Studies Review 16 (3), 1993, 185-187.
  • Review of Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot, by David Chandler. Australian Journal of Politics and History 40 (2), 1994, 280-281.
  • Review of The Rise of Historical Sociology, by Dennis Smith. Australian Journal of Politics and History 40 (2), 1994, 292-293.
  • Review of Social Memory, by James Fentrees and Chris Wickham. Australian Journal of Politics and History 40 (2), 1994, 293-294.
  • Review of Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia, edited by Ben Kiernan. Australian Journal of Politics and History40 (3), 1994, 437-438.
  • Review of Posthistoire: Has History Come to an End? By Lutz Niethammer. Australian Journal of Politics and History40 (3), 1994, 443-444.
  • Review of At War in the Shadow of Vietnam, by Timothy Castle. Asian Studies Review 17 (3), 1994, 227-229
  • Review of Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness, by M. Osborne. Pacific Affairs, 68 (3), 1995, 450–451. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zdnk1vtyh432kq5ujan0g/StuartFox-PacificAffairs-1995.pdf?rlkey=vfykqpv6obom4pyydo0su4lho&st=uz8wlc90&dl=0
  • Review of Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era: Trade, power and belief, by Anthony Reid.  Australian Journal of Politics and History 41 (2), 1995, 326-327. [PDF]
  • Review of Mawchi: Mining, war and insurgency in Burma, by L. A. Crozier. Australian Journal of Politics and History41 (2), 1995, 328. [PDF]
  • Review of The Structures of History by Christopher Lloyd. Australian Journal of Politics and History 41 (2), 1995, 334-335.
  • Review of Mayoury and Pheuiphanh Ngaosyvathn, Kith and Kin Politics: The Relationship Between Laos and Thailand and Mayoury Ngaosyvathn, Lao Women: Yesterday and Today. Asian Studies Review  18, no. 3, (1995), pp 202-204.
  • Review of Laos: A Country Study, ed. Andrea Matles Savada. The Journal of Asian Studies 55 (4), 1996, 1081-1082. [PDF]
  • Review of Vietnam 1945: The quest for power, by David G. Marr. Australian Journal of Politics and History 43 (2), 1997, 284-285.
  • Review of The Pol Pot Regime: Race, power and genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79, by Ben Kiernan. Australian Journal of Politics and History 43 (2), 1997, 287-288.
  • Review of Following Ho Chi Minh: Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel by Bui Tin. Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration no. 83, 1997, 120-122.
  • Review of Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Architecture, Film, and Literature.by Panivong Norindr, Asian Studies Review, 22, 1, 1998, 132
  • Review of Facets of Power and Its Limitations. Political Culture in Southeast Asia edited by Ing-Britt Trankell and Laura Summers. Asian Ethnicity, 1, 2000, 91-93.
  • Review of The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance: Laos since 1975 by Grant Evans. Pacific Affairs 72 (4) 2000, 610-611.
  • Review of Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Burma: Paradigms, Primary sources and Prejudices by Michael A. Aung-Thwin. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 44, 2001, 88-90.
  • Review of Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of War by Stephen J. Morris. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 48, 2002, 442-444.
  • Review of Philosophies of History: From Enlightment to Postmodernity edited by Robert M. Burns and Hugh Rayment-Pickard. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 48, 2002, 447-448.
  • Review of War in Shangri-la: A memoir of civil war in Laos, by Mervyn Brown. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 65 (3), 2002, 634-635.
  • Review of A Theory of Modernity by Agnes Heller. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 49, 2003, 149-150.
  • Review of Western supremacy: Triumph of an idea? By Sophie Bessis. Australian Journal of Politics & History, 50, 2004, 149-150.
  • Review of Cultural crisis and social memory: Modernity and identity in Thailand and Laos by Shigeharu Tanabe and Charles F. Keyes. Australian Journal of Politics & History, 50, 2004, 146-148.
  • Review of Buddhism and ethnicity: Social organization of a Buddhist temple in Kelantan by M. Y. Ismail. Asian Ethnicity 6, 2005, 257-258.
  • Review of Metaphysics, method and politics: The political Philosophy of R G Collingwood by J Connelly; Action as history: The historical thought of R G Collingwood by S Helgeby; and ”How good an historian shall I be?” R G Collingwood, the historical imagination and education by M Hughes-Warrington. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 52, 2006, 168-171.
  • Review of Lao-Tai textiles: The textiles of Xam Nuea and Muang Phuan by Patricia Cheesman. Journal of the Siam Society, 94, 2006, 256-259.
  • Review of The Kingdom of Siam: The Art of Central Thailand, 1350-1800, edited by Forrest McGill. Journal of the Siam Society, 95, 2007, 205-208.
  • Review of Revolution, Reform and Regionalism in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam by Ronald Bruce St John in Journal of the Siam Society, 95, 2007, 239-241.
  • Review of The Shan: Culture, Art and Crafts by Susan Conway in Journal of the Siam Society, 95, 2007, 281-284.
  • Review of Ways of knowing: Competing methodologies in social and political research by J. W. Moses. Australian Journal of Politics and History 53 (3), 2007, 502-504. [PDF]
  • Review of Globalization, Culture and Society in Laos by Boike Rehbein. International Institute of Asian Studies, New Books Asia, 2007. Available at https://www.iias.asia/the-review/bourdieu-and-laos.
  • Review of From Buffer State to Crossroads? Edited by Vatthana Pholsena and Ruth Banomyong. Chiang Mai: Mekong Press, 2006. Journal of the Siam Society 96, 2008, 297-302. [PDF]
  • Review of The One and the Many: Reading Isaiah Berlin, edited by George Crawder and Henry Hardy. Australian Journal of Politics and History 54 (1), 2008, 169-170.
  • Review of How to Behave: Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia 1860-1930, by Anne Ruth Hansen. IIAS Newsletter 46, 2008, 33.
  • Review of, The Trouble with Theory: The Educational Costs of Postmodernism by Gavin Kitching  Australian Journal of Politics and History 55, 1 (2009): 150-151.
  • Review of Multidisciplinary perspectives on Lao studies, edited by Karen L. Adams and Thomas John Hudak. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 42 (3), 2011, 550-552.
  • Review of Les grandes puissances et le Laos, 1954–1964 by Laurent Cesari. Journal of Cold War Studies 13 (3), 2011, 240-242. [Link]
  • Review of The Universe Unraveling: American Foreign Policy in Cold War Laos by Seth Jacobs. The Historian 75, 4, 2013, 871–872.
  • Review of Interactions with a Violent Past: Reading Post-Conflict Landscapes in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam edited by Vatthana Pholsena and Oliver Tappe. Sojourn 29, 2, 2014, 483-486. 

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(c) Reviews for the Courier-Mail

  • “Glimpses behind the Chinese curtain”: Review of Stephen FitzGerald and Pamela Hewitt, eds. China in the Seventies: Australian Perspectives. 07/03/1981.
  • “Rise and fall of Mr Hua”: Review of Ting Wang, Chairman Hua. 11/07/1981.
  • “Where politics and culture intertwine”: Review of Colin Mackerras, The performing Arts in Contemporary China.18/01/1982.
  • “Life, death and the Afghan rebels”: Review of Jan Goodwin, Caught in the Crossfire. 10/07/1985.
  • “Life, death and love in the Killing Fields”: Review of Haing S. Ngor, Surviving the Killing Fields. 02/07/1988
  • “Surviving the depths of human despair”: Review of James Fenton ed. Somneth May, Cambodian Witness: the Autobiography of Somneth May. 20/08/1988.
  • “At the heart of the revolution”: Review of Carole Jerome, The Man in the Mirror: A True Inside Story of Revolution, Love and Treachery in Iran. 10/10/1988.
  • “Exorcising the memories of war”: Review of Tim Page, Page After Page. 22/04/1989. [PDF]
  • “Honest objectives in Pilger’s journalism”: Review of John Pilger, Heroes. 27/01/1990.
  • “Vietnam in a new light”: Review of Gary Klintworth, Vietnam’s Intervention in Cambodia in International Law. 24/02/1990.
  • “Economics, politics and the Chinese”: Review of Kevin B. Bucknall, China and the Open Door Policy. 10/03/1990.
  • “A question of future culture shock”: Review of Ian Buruma, God’s Dust: A Modern Asian Journey. 17/03/1990.

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(d) Reviews for Mekong Review

  • Review of A Great Place to Have a War by Joshua Kurlantzick. Mekong Review vol. 2, no. 2, February-April 2017, pp. 7-8. Re-printed as “The secret war” in Minh Bui Jones, ed., The Best of Mekong Review, Selangor, Malaysia: Gerakbudaya Enterprise, 2019, 167-173. Available from Goodreads.
  • Review of Changing Lives in Laos: Society, Politics, and Culture in a Post-Socialist State, edited by Vanina Bouté and Vatthana Pholsena. Mekong Review vol. 2, no. 4, August-October 2017, p. 15.
  • “Scholar and believer”: Review of Impermanence: An Anthropologist of Thailand and Asia by Charles Keyes. Mekong Review vol. 5, no. 3, May 2020, pp. 23-24. 
  • “The Jarai”: Review of Disturbed Forests, Fragmented Memories by Jonathan Padwe. Mekong Review vol. 6, no. 1, November 2020, p 17.
  • “Dateline Vietnam”: Review of You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker. Mekong Review vol. 6, no. 2, February 2021, pp. 16-17. Re-printed  in Minh Bui Jones, ed., The Very Best of Mekong Review. Singapore : Epigram Books, 2023, 172-183. Available from Epigram Books.
  • Review of  Leah Zani, Strike Patterns: Notes from Postwar Laos. Stanford, California: Redwood Press, 2022. Mekong Review  vol 7, no. 4, August 2022: 17-18.
  • Review of David P. Chandler and Anthony Barnett, The Uncrowned King of Cambodia. Melbourne: Kerr Publishing, 2023. Mekong Review vol 10, no. 1, January 2025, p. 14

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