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BEHIND THE TEAK CURTAIN: Authoritarianism, Agricultural Policies and Political Legitimacy in Rural Burma/Myanmar. By Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung. London (England), New York, Bahrain: Kegan Paul (distributed by Columbia University Press, New York). 2004. xiii, 263 pp. (Tables, graphs.) £75.00, doth. ISBN0-7103-0935-X.
The publication of Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung's 2001 doctoral dissertation, supplemented with some interview material from 2002, is to be welcomed. One of the positive developments after the political crisis that forced the collapse of the old socialist regime in Burma (also known as Myanmar) has been the willingness and ability of young Burma scholars, trained in Western social science departments, to return to their homeland to conduct original and creative research. The result, as seen in Behind the Teak Curtain: Authoritarianism, Agricultural Policies and Political Legitimacy in Rural Burma/Myanmar, is an interpretation of Burma in various shades of black and grey, instead of the black-and-white, politicized rhetoric the country usually inspires.
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