Margaret Shennan Livres

The story of British Malaya, from the days of Victorian pioneers to the denouement of independence, is a momentous episode in Britain's colonial past.Through memoirs, letters and interviews, Margaret Shennan chronicles its halcyon years, the two World Wars, economic depression and diaspora, revealing the attitudes of the diverse quixotic characters of this now quite vanished world.The British came as fortune-seekers to exploit Asian trade shipped through Penang and Singapore. They found a mature Asian culture in a land of palm-fringed shores and primeval jungle. Like modern Romans, they built townships, defences, communications and hill stations, superimposed their law and established an idiosyncratic political system. They also developed the tin and rubber of the Malay States, encouraging Chinese and Indian immigrants by their open-door policy. The outcome was a vibrant multi-racial society - the most cosmopolitan in the East.

Incorporating international and domestic relations and economic and cultural influences, Shennan surveys the rise of Prussia from the early 17th century to 1740, highlighting and evaluating the role of its rulers and their idiosyncracies.