Reviews
I find Suzanne Moon's Technology in Southeast Asian History a useful guide into a splendid field that has been growing in the past decades. Facing a formidable task to fit such a huge, diverse, and contested region into only 152 pages, she created a book that is understandably selective and based largely on summary of secondary literature.
Moon's brilliant and fascinating study will be required reading for all students of Southeast Asian history. A provocation for global historians, its innovative approach to technology, its broad compass and enticing case studies offer food for thought to anyone curious about how technology works in history and in society.
Moon presents a compelling argument for the importance of technology in Southeast Asian history. Her ambitious yet accessible survey examines a broad range of topics and places the region's past in a global context. Both newcomers to scholarship on the region and its long-term practitioners will benefit from Moon's insights.
A provocative overview on the role of technology in Southeast Asia over the longue duree. Moon examines the ways that technology was used and adapted across the region for the past two thousand years, into the modern age. This meditation on the nature of the 'technological imperative' is definitely worth reading.
In deftly weaving together the history of technology and Southeast Asian history, Suzanne Moon has produced a valuable account that enriches our understanding of both. This is a learned survey of a culturally diverse region and its technologically dynamic past.
A provocative overview on the role of technology in Southeast Asia over the longue duree. Moon examines the ways that technology was used and adapted across the region for the past two thousand years, into the modern age. This meditation on the nature of the 'technological imperative' is definitely worth reading.
Book Details
List of Figures
Introduction: Technology in the Formation of a Region
1. The Human Settlement of Southeast Asia
2. Trade and Agriculture: Technological Change and Emerging Urban Centers
3. Early Modern
List of Figures
Introduction: Technology in the Formation of a Region
1. The Human Settlement of Southeast Asia
2. Trade and Agriculture: Technological Change and Emerging Urban Centers
3. Early Modern Commerce and Sociotechnical Resilience: Textile
4. Localizing Foreign Technology: Mining and Shipbuilding in the Early Modern
5. Intensification and Expansion: Agriculture in Flux after 1400
6. Technology and Cultures of Conflict in the Early Modern Period
7. Scaling up Warfare: Technology and the Warring State
8. Technology, Empire, and Nationalism
Conclusion: Technology in the History of Southeast Asia; Southeast Asia in the History of Technology
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Bibliography
Notes
Index