This book presents extensive new research findings on and new thinking about Southeast Asia in this interesting, richly diverse, but much understudied period. It examines the wide and well-developed trading networks, explores the different kinds of regimes and the nature of power and security, considers urban growth, international relations and the beginnings of European involvement with the region, and discusses religious factors, in particular the spread and impact of Christianity. One key theme of the book is the consideration of how well-developed Southeast Asia was before the onset of European involvement, and, how, during the peak of the commercial boom in the 1500s and 1600s, many polities in Southeast Asia were not far behind Europe in terms of socio-economic progress and attainments.

"Editors Gin and Tuân bring together a somewhat eclectic collection of 14 essays on early modern Southeast Asian history. The range of contributors is laudable, with chapters included from younger scholars based in Southeast Asia, such as Nordin Hussin, as well as from such noted historians as Barbara Watson Andaya, Leonard Andaya, and Nicholas Tarling. (?) The book's contributors do indeed shed more light on particular aspects of early modern history in the region, which continues to be understudied and to some extent still unknown. Useful for research libraries with collections on Southeast Asian history." -- S. Maxim, University of California, Berkeley, for CHOICE