Lee Kuan Yew: The Critical Years 1971-1978

Lee Kuan Yew: The Critical Years (1971–78) is a facsimile edition of Alex Josey’s second masterful account of Singapore’s formidable prime minister, first published in 1980 and simply titled Lee Kuan Yew Vol 2. In this volume, Josey tells the continuing story of Singapore’s remarkable development from the beginning of 1971 to the end of 1978. Read about Lee’s fears, hopes, triumphs and failures, his analytical judgements, his look into the future, his valuations and beliefs, his unswerving faith in the ability of the average Singaporean to understand what his prime minister is talking about, and his supreme confidence that Singapore will survive as an independent, if inter-dependent, sovereign state, and be successful. 


Alex Josey was a journalist, political writer and commentator, biographer, and during WWII and The Malayan Emergency, a propaganda warrior. He is best known for his biographies on the former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew as well as other political writings, such as The David Marshall Trials, Democracy in Singapore: The 1970 By-Elections, Socialism in Asia and Trade Unionism in Malaya. He also wrote about the sensational murder trials of Sunny Ang, the Gold Bar Murders, the Pulau Senang experiment and many others.