Vietnamese Colonial Republican

"Vietnamese Colonial Republican is the best single study of a major twentieth-century Southeast Asian writer, and his critical relationship to both the colonial and postcolonial eras, known to me. It offers an unsurpassed discussion of the complexities of colonial modernity and their troubled Cold War aftermath." --Alexander Woodside, author of Community and Revolution in Modern Vietnam

"Peter Zinoman and Vu Trong Phung are two gadflies who were meant for each other. In this wonderfully researched and beautifully crafted biography, Zinoman introduces us to the short productive life and extraordinary times of modern Vietnam’s greatest writer. Vu Trong Phung’s social critiques earned him the opprobrium of communists and colonialists in the 1930s, but the themes he explored remain as relevant today as ever. And as always, Zinoman argues provocatively: Phung serves as a case study in how French Republicanism worked itself out in fascinating ways in the empire. Neither Zinoman nor his subject disappoint." --Christopher Goscha, author of Going Indochinese: Contesting Concepts of Space and Place in French Indochina

"In Vietnamese Colonial Republican, Peter Zinoman gives three important contributions to the study of modern Vietnam. First, he proposes a new interpretation of debates among intellectuals in the interwar period; his exposition of 'colonial republicanism' is a fresh and compelling alternative to the version of modern politics that primarily focuses upon the Vietnamese communists. Second, his analysis of the work of Vu Trong Phung greatly expands our view of literature, thought, and culture in the 1930s. Third, his discussion of 'reform communism' offers a fresh vantage on Hanoi politics in the late 1950s. This professionally documented work is clear and readable, yet full of substance." --Keith Weller Taylor, author of The Birth of Vietnam