Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680: Volume One: The Lands Below the Winds

by Anthony Reid

Book Overview

Between the fifteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries, when the Renaissance and early capitalism were transforming Europe, changes no less dramatic were occurring in Southeast Asia. This diverse tropical region was integrated into a global trade system, while trade-based cities came to dominate its affairs. Its states became more centralized and absolutist, and its people adopted scriptural faiths of personal morality. The pace of these changes...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300047509
• ISBN13: 9780300047509
• Release Date: September 1988
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great cultural history

A book assigned in many graduate courses on Southeast Asian history, "The land below the winds", gives the student an interesting look at day to day life in Southeast Asia from the arrival of the Western Europeans(1450-1680). Painstakingly researched, the book enjoys pointing out that in many ways the SE Asians had much more modern cultural practices than the "smelly" Europeans. Reid explores in each chapter seperate cultural criteria such as: physical well-bieng, material culture, social organization and lastly festivals and amusements. A myriad of topics are covered from sexual ambiguity and practices to military combat and diplomacy. Interesting tid bits abound and the book makes good reading for both the student and general reader. This is the best of the current offerings in the field and I highly recommend it.