The essential volume on the history of maritime and mainland Southeast Asia from earliest recorded times until the present day by acclaimed historian Arthur Cotterell

A History of Southeast Asia narrates the history of the region from earliest recorded times until today, covering present-day Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia and East Timor. Its scope is the whole of Southeast Asia and not just the mainland, which has in the past received undue emphasis possibly because of the Vietnam War. Water is the geographical cause of its unity and diversity, for even landlocked Laos has the Mekong as a means of communication.