Tradition, revolution, and market economy in a North Vietnamese village, 1925-2006 /

In Revolution in the Village: Tradition and Transformation in North Vietnam, 1925-1988 (1992), Luong (anthropology, Univ. of Toronto) argued that a collectivist social contract helped villagers in northern Vietnam unite to fight colonialism and build a new nation. Now, Luong has updated his book to assess how Son-Duong village has changed over the past 20 years. The 1992 edition was invaluable for the voices it presented in long, evocative paragraphs, poignant village voices that sometimes overshadowed the author's analysis. The 2010 edition still has that great material, along with a new section based on interviews and a 2004 survey in which the author examined villagers' labor issues, corruption concerns, and changing attitudes toward life-cycle rituals and voluntary associations. Libraries interested in the up-to-date, cross-regional analysis suggested by the book's final pages may want to consider two recent books Luong has edited: Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society (CH, Nov'03, 41-1727) and Urbanization, Migration, and Poverty in a Vietnamese Metropolis: Ho Chi Minh City in Comparative Perspectives (2009). Collections lacking the 1992 edition will certainly want to obtain this updated and revised version. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above. E. J. Peters Culinary Historians of Northern California