“A Maritime Vietnam: From Earliest Times to the Nineteenth Century”

Abstract

Li Tana’s A Maritime Vietnam: From Earliest Times to the Nineteenth Century (2024) offers a comprehensive synthesis of more than four decades of her scholarly engagement with Vietnamese history. This seminal work presents a coherent, extensive, and compelling overview of Vietnam as a maritime society. Drawing from a maritime perspective, the author not only introduces novel interpretations of Vietnam’s past but also contributes meaningfully to the broader historiography of pre-modern Vietnam. Her approach provides a valuable corrective to land-centric narratives, effectively integrating coastal and maritime dynamics into the national historical framework. This volume stands as a significant contribution to both Vietnamese studies and the global field of maritime history.