January-June 2017 Highlights January 13, 2017 11:00

We're pleased to announce that our full January-June 2017 catalogue is now available for browsing and downloading. The following are some key titles to look out for:

POLITICS

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) turns 50 this year, making The ASEAN Miracle: The Catalyst for Peace  a timely tribute to the history (and future) of the regional body. Written by Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kyan Yew School of Public Policy, and Jeffrey Sng, the book highlight the strengths of the ASEAN model of international cooperation, and in the words of Amitav Acharya, the book is a “a powerful and passionate account of how, against all odds, ASEAN transformed the region.” 

 

Turning closer to Singapore’s shores, Chua Beng Huat examines the rejection of Western-style liberalism and continued hegemony of the People’s Action Party in his thought-provoking book, Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in SingaporeChua analyses the areas in public policies that are foundational to the political, economic and social stability of Singapore, making his book a valuable read for readers who are interested in Singapore's political economy and public affairs.

HISTORY

While many have lamented that countless books have already been written on the Fall of Singapore (which is commemorated on February 15, 1942), Ronald McCrum’s The Men Who Lost Singapore, 1938—1942 will be a valuable addition to the literature of the Japanese Occupation and Pacific War. Professor Greg Kennedy has commended the book as “a must-read for anyone wishing to understand why Singapore's fall occurred in the manner it did."

 

 

Fast-forwarding readers to the 1960s and 1970s, Daniel Chua focuses on Singapore’s relations with the United States under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon in US-Singapore Relations, 1965-1975: Strategic Non-alignment in the Cold War. Chua argues that against the backdrop of the US’s policy of containment at the height of the Cold War, the superpower took a great interest in Singapore’s nation-building and was integral to Singapore’s development. This counters the well-trodden narrative of Singapore's growth from “Third World to First” merely because of good governance.

CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY

David Teh’s Thai Art: Currencies of the Contemporary examines the tension between the global and the local in Thai contemporary art. The first serious study of Thai contemporary art since 1992, Teh analyses the work of artists who straddle the local and the global, against the backdrop of sustained political and economic turmoil.

 

 

Last but not least, Yvonne Spielmann’s Contemporary Indonesian Art: Artists, Art Spaces, and Collectors is a comprehensive overview of artists, curators, institutions, and collectors in the Indonesian contemporary art scene. Spielmann demonstrates how contemporary art breaks from colonial and post-colonial power structures, and grapples with issues of identity and nation-building in Indonesia.

 

 

We will also be launching a new art history journal Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia this year. It will be published twice a year (March and October) and you can enjoy free previews of the inaugural issue (Vol. 1, No. 1 [March 2017]) and Vol. 1, No. 2 (October 2017) by registering with Project MUSE.

Subsequent issues from Vol. 2, No. 1 (March 2018) will be available upon subscription. Subscription form is availabe here.