Rubber and the Making of Vietnam

“Uncovers a captivating story of imperial imposition. . . . Brilliantly delves into the ecological and technological aspects of the production of latex in southern Vietnam.”—Environmental History

“Ambitious in scope and extensively researched. . . . Exemplary of the potential of interdisciplinary history to produce a better understanding of the world of the past as well as the future.”—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“Nuanced and comprehensive . . . The book covers all major aspects of the rubber production, including science, commerce, governance, healthcare, as well as the position of rubber plantations in the prolonged wars of Vietnam. More interestingly, Aso discusses all these aspects through the lens of an ecological perspective, which clarifies the impacts of rubber on the society, economy, culture, and politics.”—Southeast Asian Studies

“Aso’s book is a welcome addition to the prolific publications on twentieth-century Vietnam that have appeared over the last two decades. It is also one of the few works that deals with the environmental history of the French colonial empire in Asia.”—H-Net Reviews

“With exceptional depth and intellectual creativity, Aso offers a fascinating view of the twentieth-century history of science and nation building in Vietnam from the perspective of the rubber plantation.” — David Biggs, University of California, Riverside

“This superb study offers a subtle, multivalent assessment of the complex, intersectional — and sometimes unpredictable — ways in which people, nature, ideology, and power interacted in the creation and evolution of industrialized rubber production in twentieth-century Indochina.” — Peter Coclanis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill