When we think of the history of French colonialism in Indochina, we tend to think of the French in Indochina. Yet during the colonial period about 200,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Lao travelled to France to study, work, or plan revolution. While we may be familiar with the most famous of these Indochinese sojourners in France, Nguyen Ai Quoc, aka Ho Chi Minh, the stories of these other Indochinese sojourners have never been told – until now. 

In this highly original, exhaustively researched book, Subjects and Sojourners: A History of Indochinese in France (University of California Press, 2024), Charles Keith reconstructs the lives of these Indochinese sojourners, and shows how living in France changed them, and how they, in turn, changed Indochina. The book contributes to a booming area of historiography that emphasizes the interconnections between people in different parts of the world, including peoples in colonized states and the colonial metropole.

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