Review by Choice Review
How does one explain the murderous Khmer Rouge regime? Several have tried. Tyner (Kent State) challenges most of the dominant interpretations, which he calls the Standard Total View. He counters with a Marxian critique of the movement that rejects the Khmer Rouge claim of being true communist revolutionaries. Employing Marxian principles of political economy through the lens of dialectic materialism, the author judges that the actions of the Pol Pot coterie did not comport to Marxian theory, and the Khmer Rouge social revolution was not a true Marxian vision. Indeed, he argues, not incorrectly, that the Khmer Rouge economy was state capitalism. But this would be true of virtually all communist regimes of the last century; none would pass Marx's test. Tyner also challenges standard interpretations of Khmer Rouge policy on family, labor practices, the role of cities, industrialization, modernization, foreign policy, and more. This alternative view of the Kampuchean miscreants affords some insights and raises some new questions; however, the study's crude ideological lens is insufficient. More and diverse analytical studies of the Angkar dystopia are necessary. The book contributes, but its appeal is to a handful of scholars. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through faculty. --Joe P. Dunn, Converse College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
