Description
Book SynopsisHistorians, anthropologists, and literary critics examine the legacies of the Second Indochina War, or what most Americans call the Vietnam War, nearly forty years after the United States finally left Vietnam.
Trade Review"
Four Decades On meets the clear scholarly need for a volume that explores the aftermath of the Vietnam War in Vietnam and the United States. This strong collection of essays demonstrates that the war continued to shape critical dimensions of Vietnamese and American history after 1975 and that these postwar developments must be conceived in a transnational frame."—
Mark Philip Bradley, author of
Vietnam at War"
Four Decades On is a most valuable collection of essays analyzing the legacies of the Second Indochina War from inside Vietnam and the United States and, in some essays, from broader transnational perspectives. Addressing film, literature, politics, memory, Agent Orange, the environment, trade, and reconciliation and its absence, this collection would make an excellent concluding assignment to any course on the Vietnam War."—
Marilyn B. Young, coeditor of
Bombing Civilians: A Twentieth-Century History“Libraries seeking materials involving the history of memory will not go wrong by adding this excellent book to their collections. Highly recommended.” -- C. C. Lovett * Choice *
“In summary, there are a lot of good bits in
Four Decades On… [T]hose seriously interested in plumbing where Vietnam is headed or where the United States has been will want to have it on a handy shelf.” -- David Brown * Contemporary Southeast Asia *
“
Four Decades On is a rich collection that provides insight into the complex legacies of the Viet Nam War, which manifest themselves in local, national, and global contexts. The anthology reminds us of the need for multi-lingual, multi-shore, and interdisciplinary methodologies to more fully grapple with the meaning of war.” -- Judy Tzu-Chun Wu * Journal of Military History *
“Given that this volume speaks to emerging trends in the historiography of the Vietnam War and Vietnamese studies, I would highly recommend
Four Decades On to academics in these respective fields, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates. . . . .These scholars also remind us that past narratives of the Vietnam War have obscured or omitted the voices and actions of the Vietnamese. Future histories must place Vietnamese and American voices in meaningful conversation, and the international lens adopted in the essays outlined above can remedy that lacunae.” -- Joshua Akers * H-War, H-Net Reviews *
" . . . this collection deserves close attention from anyone seeking a better and more complete understanding of the Second Indochina War and its legacies." -- Andrew L. Johns * Journal of American History *
"This outstanding collection of eleven essays . . . merit study by every citizen." -- Moss Roberts * Pacific Affairs *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: National Amnesia, Transnational Memory, and the Legacies of the Second Indochina War / Scott Laderman and Edwin A. Martini 1
1. Legacies Foretold: Excavating the Roots of Postwar Viet Nam / Ngo Vinh Long 16
2. Viet Nam and "Vietnam" in American History and Memory / Walter L. Hixson 44
3. "The Mainspring in This Country Has Been Broken": America's Battered Sense of Self and the Emergence of the Vietnam Syndrome / Alexander Bloom 58
4. Cold War in a Vietnamese Community / Heonik Kwon 84
5. The Ambivalence of Reconciliation in Contemporary Vietnamese Memoryscapes / Christina Schwenkel 103
6. Remembering War, Dreaming Peace: On Cosmopolitanism, Compassion, and Literature / Viet Thanh Nguyen 132
7. Viêt Nam's Growing Pains: Postsocialist Cinema Development and Transnational Politics / Mariam B. Lam 155
8. A Fishy Affair: Vietnamese Seafood and the Confrontation with U.S. Neoliberalism / Scott Laderman 183
9. Agent Orange: Coming to Terms with a Transnational Legacy / Diane Niblack Fox 207
10. Refuge to Refuse: Seeking Balance in the Vietnamese Environmental Imagination / Charles Waugh 242
11. Missing in Action in the Twenty-First Century / H. Bruce Franklin 259
Bibliography 297
About the Contributors 313
Index 315
