Despite the existence of about a thousand ethnolinguistic groups in Southeast Asia, very few historians of the region have engaged the complex issue of ethnicity. Leaves of the Same Tree takes on this concept and illustrates how historians can use it both as an analytical tool and as a subject of analysis to add further depth to our understanding of Southeast Asian pasts.

Professor Leonard Y. Andaya is professor of SEA history at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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Icons of Art:The collections of the National Museum of Indonesia
By John N. Miksic
Jakarta, Bab Publishing, 2007, 307 pp.

The Indonesian National Museum is one if the oldest museums in Asia, and for anyone interested in the cultural and national heritage  of Indonesia. is one place not to be missed. For those unable to visit Indonesia, this brings this heritage to you in an exquisite and detailed volume. Its collection spans an immense range in time and space, covering millions of years of natural and human history and thousands of islands scattered between the Indian and Pacific oceans. This is an exploration if the Museum's collections, including many never-before exhibited treasures, on the occasion of a major expansion of the museum.

Chinese Big Business in Indonesia: The state of Capital
By Christian Chua
Abingdon, Routledge, 2008, 192 pp.

This book assesses the state of the capital before, during and after the financial and political crises of 1997-98 and analyses the changing relationships between business and the Chinese in Indonesia. Using a distinct perspective that combines cultural and structural approaches on Chinese big business with exclusive material derived from interviews with some of Indonesia's major business leaders the author identifies the strategies employed by them to adapt their corporations to the post-authoritarian regime and provides a unique insight into how state-business relations in Indonesia have evolved since the crisis.

The Law and Society in Vietnam: The Transition from Socialism in Comparative Perspective
By Mark Sidel
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008, 304 pp.

A unique analysis of the struggle to build a rule of law in one of the world's most dynamic and vibrant nations - a socialist state that is seeking to build a market economy while struggling to pursue an ethos of social equality and opportunity.It addresses constitutional change, the assertion of constitutional claims by citizens, the formation of a strong civil society and non-profit sector, the emergence of economic law and the battles over who is benefited by the new economic regulation, labor law and the protection of migrant  and export labor, the rise of lawyers and public interest law, and other key topics.

Pirates, Prostitutes and Pullers: Explorations in the Ethno- and social history of Southeast Asia
By James Warren
Perth, UWA Press, 2008, 420 pp.

Utilizing documentary sources, oral traditions, photographs and paintings, this book reveals the lively history of Southeast Asia's underclass - the peasants, urban coolies, prostitutes, maritime raiders and sea nomads who played a formative role in the region's remarkable transformation.

Democracy and National Identity in Thailand
By Michael Kelly Connors
Copenhagen, NIAS Press, 2007, 293 pp.

This revised and updated edition provides readers with a fascinating discussion of how debates about democracy and national identity in Thailand have evolved from the period of counter-insurgency in the 1960s to the current period. Focusing on state-and civil-society-centered democratic projects, the author uses original Thai language sources to trace how the Thai state developed a democratic ideology that meshed with idealized notions of Thai identity, focusing on he monarchy. The book moves on to explore how non-state actors have mobilized notions of democracy and national identity in their battle against authoritarian rule.

Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S. - Indonesia Relation, 1960-1968
By Bradley Simpson
Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2008, 400 pp.

This books the first comprehensive history of U.S. relations with Indonesia during the 1960s and explores one of the central dynamics of international politics during the Cold War: the emergence and U.S. embrace of authoritarian regimes pledged to programs of military aid development. Drawing on newly  declassified archival material, this book examines how Americans and Indonesians imagined the country's development in the 1950s and why they abandoned their democratic hopes in the 1960s in favor of the military regime of General Suharto. At a crucial juncture in modern Indonesian history, the United States found common cause with the Indonesian armed forces and heir technocratic allies as the purported guardians of political and economic stability, shaping the country' s trajectory in ways that - as Indonesia's fragile transition to democracy illustrates - continues to unfold.

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