In Vietnam,  Christopher Goscha tells the full history of Vietnam, from antiquity to  the present day. Generations of emperors, rebels, priests, and  colonizers left complicated legacies in this remarkable country. Periods  of Chinese, French, and Japanese rule reshaped and modernized Vietnam,  but so too did the colonial enterprises of the Vietnamese themselves as  they extended their influence southward from the Red River Delta.

Over  the centuries, numerous kingdoms, dynasties, and states have ruled over  what is now Vietnam. Trinh and Nguyen military lords led competing  states in the 17th century. French colonizers grouped Vietnam with Laos  and Cambodia in an Indochinese Union, but governed Vietnam itself as  three separate territorial units. The bloody Cold War-era and the  American-backed Republic of Vietnam was only the most recent instance  when war divided and transformed Vietnam.

A major achievement, Vietnam offers the grand narrative of the country's complex past and the  creation of the modern state of Vietnam. At a time when more and more  visitors come to Vietnam and Southeast Asia is again at the center of  intense global rivalries, this is the definitive single-volume history  for anyone seeking to understand Vietnam today.