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The history of Singapore has been widely conflated with the history of its economic success. From its heyday as a nexus of trade during the imperial era to the modern city state that boasts high living standards for most of its citizens, the history of Singapore is commonly viewed through the lens of the ruling elite. Published in two volumes in 1998 and 2000, Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs The Singapore Story epitomizes this top-down definitive narrative of the nation's past. The history of post-war Singapore has largely been reduced to a series of decisions made by the nation's leaders. Few existing studies explore the role and experiences of the ordinary person in Singapore's post-war history. There are none that do this through ethnography, oral history, and collective biography. In a critical study that has no parallel among existing works on Singapore history, this book dispenses with the homogenous historical experience that is commonly presumed in the writing of Singapore's national past after 1945 and explores how the enforcement of a uniform language policy by the Singapore government for cultural and economic purposes has created underappreciated social and economic divides among the Chinese of Singapore both between and within families. It also demonstrates how mapping distinct economic, linguistic, and cultural cleavages within Singaporean Chinese society can add new and critical dimensions to understanding the nation's past and present. Chief among these, the author argues, are the processes behind the creation and entrenchment of class structures in the city state, such as the increasing value of English as a form of opportunity-generating capital. ... Read more

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In 2015, Singapore will celebrate its 50th anniversary of independence. Few countries anticipate the future with more confidence. This book unravels the complex historical forces and circumstances that shaped this extraordinary nation. It tells of Britain's late imperial visions and schemes, and of how their failure cast a long shadow on the story of Singapore's incorporation into the Federation of Malaysia and expulsion from it. It tells of how leaders of Singapore's PAP government rose from their debacle in Malaysia to disprove a myth that they and an entire generation had believed in, that a nation based on Singapore alone would be a joke. ... Read more

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This book presents a timely assessment of the impact of history, politics and economics in shaping the Singapore Constitution, going beyond the descriptive narrative, the authors will cast a critical eye over the developments of the last 40 years.

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There have been few accessible studies of the pre-1819 period of Singapore, a time usually seen as a vacant era. These nine papers set out what is known. By using written material and recent archaeological discoveries, much light is shed on the 900 or so years before Stamford Raffles "founded" Singapore. This collation of evidence from maps, excavated ceramics and other artefacts, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and British trading and official records, travellers' tales, and other annals enables a clearer picture of the background of modern Singapore to emerge. With colour and b&w illustrations, annotations and index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

BORING, BORING, BORING... LOTS OF EXCUSES, NO ACTION.
I was extremely dissapointed in reading this book. It contains hundreds ofpages of background information of why the British Government (and theirparliament) could not collect enough money to build up the Singapore NavalBase. Well, okay I thought, let's read about the attack and surrender, butthere are only a few pages of that and that portion is very hazy. No greatstory of defense and capture. Just boring excuse after excuse why the Britscouldn't built it up properly because of their committments on the otherside of the world. A no-action bummer. Very disappointing. ... Read more

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Singapore: A Biography takes you there - to those critical moments in the island's past, as captured through the personal accounts of people who actually lived through them. Encounter violent unrest on the city's streets, the jostling down its corridors of power, the high life of its up-and-coming elites, and the daily struggles of existence that lay beyond its five-foot ways, in an epic drama that stretches back over seven centuries. Grounded in scholarship yet fired by the imagination, this book tells a new Singapore story - one more dramatic, complex and engrossing than you might expect. ... Read more

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Different voices of history: a true democracy
This book is highly engaging and able to be read from the start (as I did) or dipped into for particular stories. Frost and his co-author Yu-Mei Balasingamchow have drawn some fine and lovely detail, especially of individuals of all races creeds and imperial backgrounds. I was moved by the stories of Elizabeth Choy, tortured for her work in the local Chinese resistance in WWII, and of the teenage Indian girl solders; by the feminists working for women's health and education; the individual journeys and ambitions of the early Baba Chinese such as Tan and the dreams and actions of later leaders of political parties such the Communist Party, De Cruz and the Liberty Cabaret and even Lee himself. They tell some dark stories, always at the level of individuals or small groups, but shy away from dwelling on despair.

While the chronology and story from a "beginning" is conventional, this history is quite unconventional in other ways. The authors have negotiated some difficult constraints, historical and contemporary, in presenting this diversity of stories without succumbing to conventional narratives of individual leadership and glory, or of a single path of history. They have succeeded in weaving together these diverse stories to produce a complex fabric of politics. They have sought to reveal to Singaporeans - and the rest of us - the different voices of history, the alternative paths and possibilities and this is their most important contribution. This is perhaps the only way such an "unofficial/ official" history could have been written without glorifying dictatorship or the bureaucratic state. They have done this in such a way that it looks easy. The authors have run the risk of appearing populist and light weight, in the very title, as a "biography" which situates the book as a personal not a "nation's" narrative. In so doing, they challenge the dominant historical narrative of progress and inevitability which always operate in the service of power. This lightness in the book is radical and is grounded in a thorough understanding of new historical methods and perspectives that validate a "decentered" story. This is aimed at strengthening anti-authoritarian positions, at encouraging public engagement and validating difference: ultimately, democracy itself. This book gives food for thought about new ways to think of other places such as Hong Kong, not just along traditional lines of authority and story telling - the push and pull between British empire and Chinese power - but in a diverse, cosmopolitan, multi-racial and religious south east asian region - that includes Australia and NZ, the Pacific, to the south and Japan and Korea to the north. So, its subtle, amusing, clever, informative and highly educational not just about Singapore but the whole Malay and southeast asian region. Congratulations to the authors. And thanks for such a good read!
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Chronicle of Singapore will capture the full dramatic sweep of modern Singapore?s history! It is living history, told in vivid newspaper format. The book will tell a myriad of individual stories ? real-life ones ? that together have made and are making up the face, the heart and the soul of Singapore. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Comprehensive and Up to date history of the fall of Singapore
Farrell has produced a very comprehensively researched and up-to-date history of the fall of Singapore. Wide Research, extensive footnotes, it may seem a bit dry and academic for some people, but this is proper history - not some hollywood script. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to study the flaws in the British strategy for the Far East and the sudden and dramatic collapse of the colonial fortress.

Fantastic History!
I must agree to disagree with Mr. Chan.I have studied the battle of Singapore for almost 38 years, and this is simply the most outstanding of the recent studies on the battle of Singapore, both tactically, operationally and strategically.I believe this to be true even though the last few years have seen several great histories published on the battle (Alan Warren, Colin Smith).This is a great addition to any library on the Battle of Singapore!

Not worth buy
I am disappointed in purchasing this book. I think that there will be a lot of information but Information on defence of Singapore and British army andCommonwealth armies is not enought. It is military history but not enought and not new military information on this. ... Read more

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Entries in this dictionary highlight and trace Singapore's history from a legendary past and its modern founding in 1819 to its evolution to its emergence as a post-war battleground of communist, socialist, democratic, and colonial interests and ideologies. With bibliography, chronology, maps, index, and tables of government leaders, cabinet members, general election results, and population by ethnicity and Chinese dialect groups. ... Read more

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Comprising a collection of papers written over two decades, this book studies the different aspects of power struggle in colonial Singapore. Topics include Chinese political and community leadership in pre-war Singapore, Tan Kah-Kee: the non-partisan Chinese nationalist, the Malayan Kuomintang Movement in the early twentieth century, and the British colonial elite and its policy toward the Chinese. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must-have for any Southeast Asian archaeologist
This volume contains the papers from one seminar in Singapore where many scholars studied ancient ceramics of Southeast Asia. It's the only monograph concerning ceramics of Southeast Asia. Usually archaeologists publish the results of excavations including earthenware but here we have a valuable introduction into Southeast Asian earthenware itself. I think it's a must-have for any archaeologist of Southeast Asia. Certainly, some groups of ceramics were omitted or did not receive a special attention, for example, the famous Rouletted ware is mentioned only occasionally. Some excavations were not included in the monograph, for example, the investigations in Sumatra near Palembang by Pierre-Yves Manguin. But it's explainable as the monograph is not a manual of ceramics but an introduction into investigation of early earthenwares. Hence, I believe, if you want to know what Southeast Asian earthenware is, read this book. ... Read more