Bibliograph

The river of lost footsteps, histories of Burma, Thant Myint-U

Type

Label

The river of lost footsteps, histories of Burma, Thant Myint-U

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-361)

Illustrations

mapsplatesillustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The river of lost footsteps

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

65064707

Responsibility statement

Thant Myint-U

Sub title

histories of Burma

Summary

Thant tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family's history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. And on his father's side, the author is descended from a long line of courtiers who served at Burma's Court of Ava for nearly two centuries. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma's rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world.--From publisher description

Table Of Contents

Downfall -- Debating Burma -- Foundations -- Pirates and princes along the bay of Bengal -- The consequences of patriotism -- War and the glass palace chronicles -- Mandalay -- Transitions -- Studying in the age of extreism -- Making the battlefield -- Alternative utopias -- The tiger's tail -- Palimpsest

Classification

Creator