The Re-Assertion of the British Empire in Southeast Asia

Bayly and Harper’s Forgotten Wars examines the interrelated events, individuals, and ideologies involved in Britain’s re-conquest of Southeast Asia after World War II, as well as its authoritarian attempts to shape the postwar landscape there and to re-assert its political and moral authority in a rapidly shifting global context. British imperial violence and authoritarianism were more pronounced in Southeast Asia during the postwar era than commonly acknowledged. Hence, issues of morality, objectivity, and methodology acquire a new relevance concerning the literature about the end of the British Empire.