Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Further Reading
For a general introduction to Cambodia and its history, interested readers would do well
to start with David P. Chandler,
A History of Cambodia
(Boulder, 2008), or John Tully,
A
Short History of Cambodia: From Empire to Survival
(Sydney, 2006), both of which of-
fer good overviews of the country's story from premodern times to the present. Another
valuable volume is Chandler's
Facing the Cambodian Past: Selected Essays, 1971-1994
(Chiang Mai, 1998), which contains articles on topics ranging from the Angkorian period
to the regime of Democratic Kampuchea. The Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan's thirteenth-
century chronicle of his visit to Angkor offers one of the only descriptive accounts of life
as it might have been lived under the Angkorian God-Kings. The best translation is that by
Peter Harris, published as
A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People
(Chiang Mai,
2007).
On the French protectorate (1863-1953), two detailed studies recommend themselves:
Penny Edwards,
Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860-1945
(Honolulu, 2007),
and John Tully,
France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia,
1863-1953
(Lanham, 2002). For post-independence Cambodia, Chandler's
The Tragedy
of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution since 1945
(Chiang Mai, 1994) is a
detailed and highly readable study of the backdrop to Pol Pot's revolution. Ben Kiernan's
How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia,
1930-1975
(New Haven, 2004) is a similarly accomplished academic study of the roots
of the Cambodian communist movement, from Saloth Sar to Son Ngoc Thanh. Milton Os-
borne's
Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness
(Chiang Mai, 1994) offers a critical
take on the “golden age” of the 1950s and 1960s.
There are ample accounts of the years of Democratic Kampuchea. Kiernan's
The Pol
Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79
(New Haven and London, 1996) is an intricately detailed study, based on lengthy inter-
views conducted shortly after the fall of the regime. For a vivid journalistic treatment of
Democratic Kampuchea, see Elizabeth Becker,
When the War Was Over: Cambodia and
