In a Little Kingdom
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- 54,99 €
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- 54,99 €
Publisher Description
First Published in 1991.During its last decades, the Kingdom of Laos was inhabited by a gentle people with a few astonishingly able leaders. When the Vietnamese war monopolized American headlines, the little country became famous for the wrong reasons. This book was conceived as an attempt to tell of the Laos the author knew: its people, its culture, its history as he does not want the kingdom to disappear without some written record of why it was so special.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stieglitz, former Washington correspondent for the Bangkok Post and U.S. foreign service officer in the '60s and '70s, recounts the tragedy of a gentle people caught up in factional conflicts led by three Lao princes. He records the chaotic history of Laos in its last years and the struggle by shaky coalitions representing outside interests to maintain the country's independence and neutrality prior to the communist takeover in 1975. A keen, sympathetic observer, the author evokes the storybook charm of the former French colony as he quotes letters written home during his romantic courtship of and subsequent marriage to one of the princes' daughters. He also depicts a bewildering, multinational cast of characters, including Americans who, according to the policies of successive administrations, alternately supported the kingdom or speeded its downfall. Photos not seen by PW. Index.
