Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War

The book is an attempt by an anthropologist of Malaysian origin presently teaching in Sydney to make sense of the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) by looking at the event from a Marxist perspective. For most Malaysians who are used to the ofcial narrative, this approach offers another way of looking...

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Main Author: Souchou, Yao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/41414/
http://eprints.usm.my/41414/1/IJAPS-142_ART10_BR.pdf
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author Souchou, Yao
author_facet Souchou, Yao
author_sort Souchou, Yao
building USM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The book is an attempt by an anthropologist of Malaysian origin presently teaching in Sydney to make sense of the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) by looking at the event from a Marxist perspective. For most Malaysians who are used to the ofcial narrative, this approach offers another way of looking at the same episode in their history by providing an explanation of the failed communist (socialist) revolution in Malaya. Coming from Kuala Lumpur, a petty bourgeois background, the author was affected by the Emergency in many ways just like many of his generation. But unlike others he was attracted to Marxism while studying at Adelaide University in the 1960s. At the time and the subsequent decades, the Marxist theory became fashionable among academics all over the world including Malaysia as it provides an exciting underpinning of the social sciences. Later the author was drawn to the New Left ideology of the Frankfurt School and French Marxists like Althusser.
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spelling usm-414142018-08-20T02:06:58Z http://eprints.usm.my/41414/ Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War Souchou, Yao P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General) The book is an attempt by an anthropologist of Malaysian origin presently teaching in Sydney to make sense of the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) by looking at the event from a Marxist perspective. For most Malaysians who are used to the ofcial narrative, this approach offers another way of looking at the same episode in their history by providing an explanation of the failed communist (socialist) revolution in Malaya. Coming from Kuala Lumpur, a petty bourgeois background, the author was affected by the Emergency in many ways just like many of his generation. But unlike others he was attracted to Marxism while studying at Adelaide University in the 1960s. At the time and the subsequent decades, the Marxist theory became fashionable among academics all over the world including Malaysia as it provides an exciting underpinning of the social sciences. Later the author was drawn to the New Left ideology of the Frankfurt School and French Marxists like Althusser. Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) 2018 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/41414/1/IJAPS-142_ART10_BR.pdf Souchou, Yao (2018) Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 14 (2). pp. 191-194. ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243 http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/IJAPS-142_ART10_BR.pdf
spellingShingle P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General)
Souchou, Yao
Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War
title Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War
title_full Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War
title_fullStr Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War
title_full_unstemmed Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War
title_short Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War
title_sort book review: the malayan emergency: essays on a small, distant war
topic P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General)
url http://eprints.usm.my/41414/
http://eprints.usm.my/41414/
http://eprints.usm.my/41414/1/IJAPS-142_ART10_BR.pdf