This massive history of South-East Asia covers the period from pre-history up until the Vietnam War. It is a scholarly but very readable history of nations and empires that arose and disappeared long before the European colonisation of the region. But while worthwhile in its own right, this history is of more than academic interest, as it clearly lays out the emnities that have driven modern wars and politics in the region. The sheer size of the book is daunting, but the chapters can be read as a series of self contained essays on different regions at different periods of history. There are more modern histories (the latest edition of Hall is 1970), but it is widely quoted by those later histories and still stands as an achievement in history and literature. ( )