Some more ‘East Indies’ book reviews have come in.

Photo courtesy of Rianti

Armed Enterprise – Competition and Monopoly in the East

Burnet tells of the struggle between the Portuguese Crown, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the English East India Company for trade supremacy in the Eastern Seas.
It’s with vivid historical anecdotes, that Australian author Ian Burnet navigates the long and complex history of European expansion into the Indian Ocean, South East Asia and the China Seas, lured by the wealth to be gained by wresting control of the world’s oldest and richest trades and sea lanes … Burnet’s challenge has been to turn this tumultuous history into a readable, short narrative for a wider, more general audience. To this end he structures the book into three sections from the perspective of the key European players, chronicling the activities of first the Portuguese , then the Dutch and then the English … two features of the book that make this popular history so enjoyable are the many quotes from the mouths of the story’s protagonists, and the well selected historic colour images that closely enhance the narrative.

— Jeffrey Mellefont, Signals, Australian National Maritime Museum

This comprehensive work is highly recommended to students, researchers, and general audiences … it is a worthwhile regional history in and of itself, while on a more scholarly level, it serves as a contribution to the literature on globalization and imperial expansion,
Overall, the book is well written and provides a solid narrative chronicling the embryonic European presence from India to Japan, and ultimately informs the reader of the region’s robust trade networks over a span of centuries, enriching an understanding of the dynamic geographic dimensions of globalization.

— Dr. Thomas J. Sigler, School of Geography – University of Queensland, The Globe

There are more details on the author website at http://www.ianburnetbooks.com