"An excellent book. The research is based on a solid command of the archival sources; it is well argued and loaded with insightful details."
"[Catholic Vietnam] adds a sophisticated voice to debates about the role of religion in the imperial project, giving an in-depth exploration of relations between government and church officials on the ground and demonstrating that religious, secular, imperial, and national discourses were co-constitutive."
"Catholic Vietnam . . . is an articulate and thoughtful re-evaluation of the Church as a national institution and as a factor in Vietnam's path towards independence."
"In this richly documented and judiciously argued book, Charles Keith has crafted a engaging account of what it was like to be Catholic in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Vietnam. He provides what no other scholar has: a nuanced and complex history of the political discord, social uncertainties, and spiritual aspirations that shaped Catholicism for millions of Vietnamese from the beginning of French colonial rule to the first years of national independence. Intelligent, detailed, and compelling, Catholic Vietnam is an important book." —J. P. Daughton, author of An Empire Divided: Religion, Republicanism, and the Making of French Colonialism, 1880-1914
"In Catholic Vietnam, Charles Keith challenges a deeply entrenched body of flawed conventional wisdom about the modern history of Vietnamese Catholicism. Free from the biases and tendentious assumptions that distorted scholarship on the topic during the Vietnam War era and armed with a massive arsenal of difficult-to-access primary sources in French and Vietnamese, Keith provides the most thorough and even-handed historical treatment currently available of the Vietnamese Catholic community under French rule, while telling a gripping story about a fascinating but neglected political and cultural process that he calls Catholic ‘decolonization.’ Beautifully written, exhaustively researched, and persuasively argued, Catholic Vietnam sets a new standard within the field." —Peter Zinoman, author of The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940
“In this nuanced, wide-ranging, and lively account, Charles Keith establishes how Vietnamese Catholics positioned themselves and were perceived over time. Challenging binary and orthodox narratives, Keith’s meticulously researched book successfully interrogates and ultimately debunks notions of Catholicism’s inherent foreignness to Vietnam. Catholic Vietnam provides very important and timely contributions to the histories of Vietnam, of religion, and of French colonialism.” —Eric T. Jennings, author of Imperial Heights: Dalat and the Making and Undoing of French Indochina
