Colonialism and the Ideological Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution—A Review Article Available to Purchase

Recent books on colonial Vietnam by David Marr and Martin Murray make possible an assessment of the relationship between economic change and the diffusion of modern ideologies among Vietnamese intellectuals. The ideological ferment that Marr documents occurred because the downfall of Confucianism left intellectuals without a way to analyze their country. Martin Murray's detailed description of colonial economic transformations helps to explain why most of the Vietnamese concern was with radical ideologies, and why there was no intellectual and economic basis for moderate political activity among the intelligentsia.