"Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse regions in the world, hosting a wide range of languages, ethnicities, religions, economies, ecosystems, and political systems. Amidst this diversity however has been a common desire to develop. This provides a uniting theme across landscapes of...

Though written at different times, and in response to different occasions, the essays in this book aim to offer a convincing and coherent approach to the interpretation of the topic referred to in the title. The initial impetus for this long course of historical research came in 1976, with a...