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The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy

Author: Thant Myint-U

W. W. Norton , New York, 2019, pp. 320 pb

This well-received book by a Burmese historian (and grandson of UN Secretary General U Thant) explores the complexities of the ethnic and religious composition of Burma/Myanmar, which has never fully cohered as a country since it acquired independence from the British Empire after the Second World War.  The book focuses particularly on the period since the cyclone of 2008, which killed almost 400,000 people and exposed the ineffectiveness of the military regime when constructive action was needed.