Book excerpt: This reader provides a comprehensive study of 20th-century Southeast Asia from the beginning of the century to the present. It concentrates particularly on the formation and development of 20th-century nationalist movements in the region, examining their early organization during the zenith of European imperial control and their evolution during the formative period of anti-colonial activity. It traces the intense period of revolutionary upheaval after the Second World War, the anti-colonial wars and the prolonged period of bargaining over the creation of independent states. The region became a frontline in the global Cold War. At the time of the steadily escalating Vietnam war, many of the internal and regional conflicts in Southeast Asia were resolved, and political structures and economic agendas were established that have remained largely intact to the present day.