The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya

Modern Malaya was born in a period of war, insurrection, and monumental social upheaval. Tim Harper's acclaimed 1999 study examines the achievement of independence in 1957, not primarily through the struggle between Imperial Britain and nationalist elites, but through the internal struggles that late colonial rule fostered at all levels of Malayan society. It contains research on the impact of the Second World War in Malaya, the origins and course of the Communist Emergency, and urbanisation and popular culture, and charts the responses of Malaya's communities to more intrusive forms of government and to rapid social change. Dr Harper emphasises the various conflicting visions of independence, and suggests that although the experiments of late colonialism were frustrated, they left an enduring legacy for the politics of independent Malaya. This book sheds light on the dynamics of nationalism, ethnicity, and state-building in modern Southeast Asia. a......Page 1 CBO9780511585517A003......Page 2 CBO9780511585517A004......Page 8 CBO9780511585517A005......Page 10 CBO9780511585517A006......Page 12 CBO9780511585517A007......Page 15 CBO9780511585517A008......Page 18 CBO9780511585517A009......Page 20 CBO9780511585517A010......Page 32 CBO9780511585517A016......Page 74 CBO9780511585517A022......Page 113 CBO9780511585517A028......Page 168 CBO9780511585517A034......Page 214 CBO9780511585517A040......Page 247 CBO9780511585517A046......Page 293 CBO9780511585517A052......Page 327 CBO9780511585517A058......Page 376 CBO9780511585517A064......Page 402 CBO9780511585517A065......Page 428 This is the first general social and political history of Malaya. Focussing on the years 1945 to 1957, the last years of British rule and the achievement of independence, it embraces a wealth of social, economic and cultural, as well as political themes. It contains new research on the impact of the Second World War in Malaya, the origins and course of the Communist Emergency, and the response of Malaya's various ethnic communities to nationalism and social change. A concluding chapter takes these themes forward into the 1990s to shed new light on the emergence of this important Southeast Asian nation. In Malacca, beside a large reconstruction of the palace of its kings, housed in the old British Club where Somerset Maugham set his short story 'Footprints in the jungle', is an exhibition of over 500 years of Malaysian history.

One of most important contributions to the history of decolonisation to appear in the past generation.