Providing the basis for a reconceptualization of key features in Southeast Asia's history, this book examines evolutionary patterns of Europe's and Japan's Southeast Asian empires from the late 19th century through to the 1960s.

Introduction, 1. Dimensions of Decolonization, 2. The Impact of World War II on Decolonization, 3. The Economic Impact of Decolonization in Southeast Asia: Economic Nationalism and Foreign Direct Investment, 1945-1965, 4. Monarchy and Decolonization in Indochina, 5. France and the Associated States of Indochina, 1945-1955, 6. The Indonesian Revolution and the Fall of the Dutch Empire: Actors, Factors, and Strategies, 7. Theories and Approaches to British Decolonization in Southeast Asia, 8. British Attitudes and Policies on Nationalism and Regionalism, 9. The "Grand Design": British Policy, Local Politics, and the Making of Malaysia, 1955-1961, 10. Making Malaya Safe for Decolonization: The Rural Chinese Factor in the Counterinsurgency Campaign, 11. "Nationalism" in the Decolonization of Singapore, 12. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Trusteeship, and U.S. Exceptionalism: Reconsidering the American Vision of Postcolonial Vietnam, 13. The United States and Southeast Asia in an Era of Decolonization, 1945-1965, 14. John Foster Dulles and Decolonization in Southeast Asia, 15. Between SEATO and ASEAN: The United States and the Regional Organization of Southeast Asia, 16. Parable of Seeds: The Green Revolution in the Modernizing Imagination, 17. Afterword: The Limits of Decolonization, Notes, About the Contributors, Index