Ian Talbot's new and revised account of the broad sweep of modern South Asian history reframes the region's recent past in light of concerns animating the turn to transnational histories, and places far greater emphasis on the histories of Pakistan and Bangladesh. A History of Modern South Asia accomplishes these two goals admirably, albeit within the many constraints posed by the genre, and will surely join the small and privileged number of introductory surveys to which instructors routinely turn for scaffolding. Talbot sees his work as “one of the few accounts to bring together histories of overseas South Asians and their homelands” (p. 3)—a timely effort, in more ways than one, especially given the growing awareness of and interest in the region's history and connections with the rest of the world in institutions of higher education, and cultural and geopolitical domains more generally.
Composed of fifteen brisk chapters divided into...
