Description
Book SynopsisA
Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2020
How did one of the world’s "buzzy hotspots" (
Fodor’s 2013) become one of the top ten places to avoid (
Fodor’s 2018)?
Trade Review"Thant Myint-U is a writer with a humane sensibility and a delicate yet pointed touch....Learned yet also intimate,
The Hidden History of Burma is an urgent book about a heavy subject." -- Jennifer Szalai - New York Times
"Thant Myint-U's most impressive title to date, featuring anecdotes from the author’s own extraordinary life." -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom - Wall Street Journal
"Thant Myint-U is the greatest living historian of Burma…His profoundly humane and ethical meditations on national identity, plurality, and the dangers of hyper-nationalism are vital to anyone trying to understand the Rohingya crisis or wrestling with the complexities of modern South or South East Asia." -- William Dalrymple, author of The Anarchy
"At once absorbing, illuminating, and humane, Thant Myint-U’s work traces the complex gearings of race, identity, and money with the perspective of a scholar and the intimacy of an insider. It’s invaluable in helping us understand the complexities not just of contemporary Burma but of our postcolonial world." -- Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity
"An engrossing new book about Myanmar’s troubled, unfinished transition from dictatorship to democratic rule...
The Hidden History of Burma should become a guiding reference work for how we view the new Myanmar." -- Josh Reed - Financial Times
"The book on Burma I’ve been waiting to read—a riveting behind-the-scenes account of the country’s political and social transition over recent years, a brave unravelling of well-worn myths, and an urgent plea to imagine a new story and better future for Burma." -- Emma Larkin, author of Finding George Orwell in Burma
"Thant Myint-U deftly weaves together factors as diverse as nationalism, capitalism, geopolitics, and social media into a clear-eyed analysis of Burma’s troubled past and present. An essential read for anyone who wants to understand Burma and the challenges it must face in the coming decades." -- Kishore Mahbubani, author of Has the West Lost It? A Provocation
"Few countries are as complex—or fascinating—as modern-day Burma. In these pages, Thant Myint-U explains the country’s fifteen-year transformation from military junta to peaceful democracy to divided and fractured post-crisis country. A must-read book, not just for those interested in Burma, but for those interested in broader questions of race, national identity and democracy in our 21st-century world." -- Ian Bremmer, author of Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism
"Acute yet empathetic, this book is essential reading for all those interested in the future of Asia and the subcontinent." -- Shivshankar Menon, former foreign secretary of India
