Preparing for Assignments on or in Cambodia:
A Short Bibliography
Compiled by Catherine Morris, BA, JD, LLM
This short annotated bibliography was created for those beginning their studies or preparing for assignments in Cambodia. Those who have time only for reading on the plane (unfortunate, but not uncommon) could scan past issues of the on-line edition of the Phnom Penh Post. Also see the list of on-line news sources for daily updates from a variety of international and local sources. Also see links to reports on human rights in Cambodia. Check out Peacemakers Trust's Twitter feed on Cambodia
It is also useful to visit the websites of Cambodian organizations whose work may be relevant to your interests. See the links to several organizations and resources involved in peacebuilding, including conflict resolution, human rights, legal development and governance. For more extensive preparation or study, see the several on-line bibliographies and addresses of libraries in Phnom Penh.
Follow Peacemakers Trust @EyeOnCambodia on
Selected Short Reading List on Cambodia
Overviews . Pol Pot Regime 1975-79 & aftermath . PRK & SOC Regimes 1979-91 . UNTAC & afterward . Information on the ECCC (off this page) . Human Rights in Cambodia (off this page) . Media in Cambodia (off this page) . Memoirs & Journalists' Stories
Overviews
David Chandler, A History of Cambodia, Fourth edition (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2008). Chandler is considered one of the leading historians on Cambodia. Originally published in 1983, this highly readable book covers Cambodian history for the past two thousand years, with emphasis on the period from 1800 onward including the growth of nationalism, the growth of the left, civil war, the Khmer Rouge and post-Khmer Rouge periods. Readily accessible in university libraries or by interlibrary loan. Out of respect for David Chandler, we don't suggest buying photocopies at the market.
Ian Harris, "Buddhism in Extremis: The Case of Cambodia," in Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-Century Asia, edited by Ian Harris, 54-78 (London, New York: Pinter, 1999). This article is a good overview of the historical involvement of Khmer-Buddism in Cambodian politics. For more indepth reading on Buddhist religious dimensions of Cambodian history and politics, read Ian Harris's book Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008), and Buddhism under Pol Pot (Phnom Penh: Documentation Centre of Cambodia, 2007)
Kiernan, Ben, and Caroline Hughes, eds. Conflict and Change in Cambodia. Critical Asian Studies 34(4) (December 2002). This special issue devoted to Cambodia contains an introduction by Ben Kiernan on "Conflict in Cambodia, 1945-2002" as well as articles on the collapse of the Pol Pot regime in 1979 (Ben Kiernan), the period between 1991-99 (David Roberts), international intervention (Caroline Hughes), forest exploitation (Philippe Le Billon), forest conflict involving state and "highlanders" in one province (Ruth Bottomley), the contining quest for justice after the Cambodian genocide (Helen Jarvis). ISSN: 1467-2715.
Robert C. Lester, Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1973). Lester's book is a useful primer on basic concepts of Theravada Buddhism.
François Ponchaud, The Cathedral of the Rice Paddy: 450 Years of History of the Church in Cambodia. Translated from the French into English by Nancy Pignarre and the Bishop Salas Cambodian Catholic Center (Paris: Le Sarment, Fayard, 1990). This is a valuable and readable history of the Roman Catholic church in Cambodia since 1550. It is a "must-read" for those interested in the work of the Christian church in Cambodia and the region. While writing from a Christian perspective, Ponchaud takes a detached and critical view of the role of the Christian church over the centuries, including Catholic and Protestant churches. This book is important reading for those concerned with the current role of the Christian church, and should also be considered by those wishing a better understanding of Cambodian culture and religion. It is also valuable for its insight into the ways the Church has been manipulated over the centuries by European and Cambodian politics in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. Some readers may also wish to read Don Cormack's book on the evangelical protestant church in Cambodia, listed below. The English language version may be less readily available.
The Pol Pot Regime 1975-1979 and its immediate aftermath
Elizabeth Becker, When the War Was Over: The Voices of Cambodia's Revolution and Its People (New York: Public Affairs, 1996) , originally published New York: Simon Schuster, 1986. This book is considered one of the better books about the Khmer Rouge period. It also covers the period of the 1980s prior to the Paris Peace Accords. Balance the point of view in this book by reading works by Ben Kiernan and Michael Vickery. This book is readily accessible in university libraries.
David P. Chandler, Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot, Revised edition (Boulder: Westview Press, 1999). This is more than a biography of Pol Pot. It traces the Cambodian communist movement throughout the 1950s and 1960s up until the end of Pol Pot's life in 1998.
David Chandler, Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison, Second Edition (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999). This remarkable book provides important insights into the purges during the Khmer Rouge period. It takes a historian's approach to exploration of the questions many Cambodians struggle with: "how and why did all the killing and suffering happen?"
Don Cormack, Killing Fields Living Fields: An Unfinished Portrait of the Cambodian Church (Crowborough, UK: OMF International, 1997). This book records the views of an Anglican priest who spent considerable time in Cambodia before and after the Khmer Rouge period. There is a good deal of moving biographical detail about lives of individuals before, during and after the Pol Pot regime up to the mid-1990s. There is also material about the refugee camps. The book is a "must-read" for anyone interested in the work of Christian churches in Cambodia. This book also provides a good deal of readable chronology of 20th century Cambodia. The author takes a strongly evangelical orientation, but he is caustic in his criticism of some evangelicals' Western Christian approaches to development and some church groups' Western cultural or political assumptions. He also criticizes the alignment of some Christian groups with state political asp irations through acceptance of government funding with strings attached. Readers should balance Cormack's perspective with Ponchaud's The Cathedral of the Rice Paddy.
Craig Etcheson, After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005). Etcheson's book draws on archival research and field research over many years to record the process of accumulation of evidence of the crimes of the Pol Pot regime.
Steve Heder, "Racism, Marxism, Labelling, and Genocide in Ben Kiernan's The Pol Pot Regime," South East Asia Research 5(2) (July, 1997): 101-153. This article by a leading scholar on Cambodia is an in depth critical review of Ben Kiernan's The Pol Pot Regime, listed below.
Karl D. Jackson, Cambodia 1975-1978: Rendezvous with Death (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989). An interdisciplinary collection of articles about the Khmer Rouge period.
Ben Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power: A History of Communism in Kampuchea, 1930-1975 (London: UK: Thetford Press, Limited, 1985). This challenging book is well-worth reading. It is a detailed history of the nationalist communist movement in Cambodia up until the beginning of the Pol Pot regime. Often cited.
Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime: Politics, Race and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996). Australian author Ben Kiernan is one of the leading scholars on Cambodia and one of the leaders of Yale's genocide information project. Often cited.
François Ponchaud, Cambodia Year Zero, translated from the French by Nancy Amphoux (London: Allen Lane)1978. Father Ponchaud has worked in Cambodia or with Cambodians since 1965. He wrote this book in French in 1976 after hearing many accounts of Cambodian refugees about what had happened to them during the first part of the Pol Pot regime. It includes his own first-person account of the first weeks of the regime. Often cited.
William Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979). This is Shawcross's readable account of the secret and illegal US bombing of Cambodia from 1969 to 1973 as a "sideshow" to the Vietnam war. Shawcross argues that the secret bombings contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Serge Thion, Watching Cambodia (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1993). Journalist Serge Thion has collected many of his writings between 1972 and 1992 in this often-cited collection.
Michael Vickery, Cambodia: 1975-1982 (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1993). In addition to covering the Khmer Rouge period of 1975-1979, he covers the early years of the Peoples' Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) regime (1979-1989) with emphasis on correcting exaggerations or inaccuracies about the PRK regime that were fuelled by foreign governments during the period of anti-Vietnamese international isolation. There is a chapter on his analysis of the nature of the Cambodian revolution with discussion of its possible cultural and ideological origins.
PRK and SOC Regimes 1979 to 1991
Kiernan, Ben, and Caroline Hughes, eds. Conflict and Change in Cambodia. Critical Asian Studies 34(4) (December 2002). This special issue devoted to Cambodia contains an introduction by Ben Kiernan on "Conflict in Cambodia, 1945-2002" as well as articles on the collapse of the Pol Pot regime in 1979 (Ben Kiernan), the period between 1991-99 (David Roberts), international intervention (Caroline Hughes), forest exploitation (Philippe Le Billon), forest conflict involving state and "highlanders" in one province (Ruth Bottomley), the contining quest for justice after the Cambodian genocide (Helen Jarvis). ISSN: 1467-2715.
Eva Mysliwiec, Punishing the Poor: The International Isolation of Kampuchea (Oxford, UK: Oxfam, 1988). Mysliwiec, who has been in Cambodia since 1979, discusses the reasons for and effects of the international isolation on Cambodia after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. It is now out of print, but may be obtained on inter-library loan. Often cited.
Michael Vickery, Kampuchea: Politics Economics and Society (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1986). This book is describes in some detail the social structure, political system, and policies of the PRK government up until 1986. Often cited.
Toby Alice Volkmann, Cambodia 1990. Special edition. Cultural Survival Quarterly 14(3) 1990. This issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly is out of print, but would be accessible in university libraries. It is a series of short articles by widely cited (mostly Western) scholars on Cambodia including Kate Friesen, Charles Keyes, Ben Kiernan, Michael Vickery and others. This issue emphasizes the immediate ten-year aftermath of the Khmer Rouge period. Available at http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/143-fall-1990-cambodia
UNTAC and after the 1993 election (1992 to present)
Frederick Z. Brown and David G. Timberman, eds., Cambodia and the International Community: The Quest for Peace, Development, and Democracy (Singapore: Asia Society, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998). This collection of essays looks at the progress toward peace primarily since the Paris Peace Accords, with emphasis on the period since the 1993 election.
May Ebihara, Carol A. Mortland, and Judy Ledgerwood, eds. Cambodian Culture since 1975: Homeland and Exile (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1994). This fascinating multi-disciplinary collection of readable essays provides many useful insights about Cambodian culture from a variety of perspectives. The editors are are leading scholars on Cambodia. Readily accessible in university libraries.
Maha Ghosananda, Step by Step: Meditations on Wisdom and Compassion, edited by Jane Sharada Mahoney and Philip Edmonds (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1992). This is a collection of short homilies by Venerable Maha Ghosananda, the spiritual leader of Cambodia's Buddhist peace movement. It also contains a useful introduction by the editors about the history of the Cambodian peace movement.
Global Witness. Cambodia's Family Trees. London, UK: Global Witness, 2007. Global Witness's famous report documents allegations of corruption and illegal seizure of public assets, particularly natural resources. The report focuses attention on reported roles of senior officials and their families. Also discussed are reportedly illegal large scale logging activities in the Prey Long Forest. http://www.globalwitness.org/library/cambodias-family-trees
John A. Hall, "Human Rights and the Garment Industry in Contemporary Cambodia," Stanford Journal of International Law 36(1)(2000): 119-74.. Using the example of the garment industry until approximately the end of 1998, Hall's well-researched article is an excellent introduction to the legal, human rights and political issues regarding labour and trade unions in Cambodia. It discusses the situation of garment factory workers, employers and relevant government officials. The 1997 Labour Law is discussed, including its application in practice. As with any writings about contemporary issues in Cambodia, readers should be prepared to update their information, as some laws referred to in the article have been amended. Please update Hall's article with current ILO reports
Steve Heder, and Judy Ledgerwood, eds., Propaganda, Politics, and Violence in Cambodia: Democratic Transition under United Nations Peace-keeping (Armonk, NY and London, UK: M.E. Sharpe, 1996) This is a valuable collection of essays about the UNTAC period by authors who were involved in the work of UNTAC.
Dylan Hendrickson, Safeguarding Peace: Cambodia's Constitutional Challenge. Accord 5 (November, 1998.) http://www.c-r.org/accord-article/steering-middle-path-buddhism-non-violence-and-political-change-cambodia.This is an excellent place to begin reading about Cambodia. It is a series of readable articles that covers the history of Cambodia up to the post-1998 election period. If you have time to read only a small amount, this on-line resource is invaluable. Many of the articles are written by Cambodian authors.
Caroline Hughes, An Investigation of Conflict Management in Cambodian Villages: A Review of the Literature with Suggestions for Future Research. Phnom Penh: Centre for Peace and Development, Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 2001.
International Labour Organization. Cambodia Resources. Available at http://www.ilo.org/asia/countries/cambodia/facet/lang-%2Den/index.htm.
Kiernan, Ben, and Caroline Hughes, eds. Conflict and Change in Cambodia. Critical Asian Studies 34(4)(December 2002). This special issue devoted to Cambodia contains an introduction by Ben Kiernan on "Conflict in Cambodia, 1945-2002" as well as articles on the collapse of the Pol Pot regime in 1979 (Ben Kiernan), the period between 1991-99 (David Roberts), international intervention (Caroline Hughes), forest exploitation (Philippe Le Billon), forest conflict involving state and "highlanders" in one province (Ruth Bottomley), the contining quest for justice after the Cambodian genocide (Helen Jarvis). ISSN: 1467-2715.
Koy Neam, Introduction to the Cambodian Judicial Process (Phnom Penh: The Asia Foundation)1998. Written in Khmer and English, this book provides a 1998 overview of the structures and processes of the judicial system in Cambodia, including criminal and civil procedure, and appellate procedure. For information about this publication, contact The Asia Foundation Law Program, GPO Box 536, House 59, Street 242, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, tafcb@forum.org.kh; or The Asia Foundation/Cambodia, c/o The Asia Foundation, PO Box 193223, 365 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94101, USA. Note that as of 2007, the Cambodian government remains in the process of drafting new civil and criminal codes, and codes of civil and criminal procedure, as well as legislation in many other areas.
Judy Ledgerwood, ed., Cambodia Emerges from the Past: Eight Essays (DeKalb, IL: Southeast Asia Publications) 2002. This collection about contemporary Cambodia and the study of the Khmer Rouge contains essays by leading scholars on Cambodia including David Chandler, Steve Heder, May Ebihara, John Marston, Susan Cook, Alex Hinton, Carol Mortland, John Vijghen, Keang Un and Judy Ledgerwood.
Judy L. Ledgerwood, "Rural Development in Cambodia: The View from the Village," in Cambodia and the International Community: The Quest for Peace, Development, and Democracy, edited by Frederick Z. Brown and David G. Timberman, 127-47 (Singapore: Asia Society, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998). Important reading to understand the rural nature of most Cambodians' lives.
Secretariat of State for Women's Affairs, Cambodia's Country Report, Women: Key to National Reconstruction (Phnom Penh: Secretariat of State for Women's Affairs, 1995). This excellent report is written by Chantou Boua, a leading scholar on Cambodia. Even though written in 1995, the report remains highly useful, not only to understand issues concerning women, but also for concise its overview of development and justice issues in Cambodia. While the statistics and some information are outdated, the issues facing women in Cambodia remain much the same. This book may be found at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) library in Phnom Penh.
Shaun Williams, Where Has All the Land Gone? Land Rights and Access in Cambodia, Volume 1 and Volume 2 (Phnom Penh: Oxfam (GB), 1999) http://www.ngoforum.org.kh/docs/publications/LIP_draftlandlaw.zip. This useful work contains useful background information about land issues and land disputes in Cambodia, the largest current source of disputes in Cambodia. While the information is now more than a decade out of date, it will provide useful insights for anyone concerned with conflict resolution, the legal system, the court system or human rights in Cambodia. Volume 2 contains several case studies. Please update with other documents on land reform. Also see Global Witness's Cambodia's Family Trees. Also update with Peacemakers Trust's links to Reports on Human Rights in Cambodia, particularly LICADHO's current reports on human rights and land grabbing.
Memoirs and Journalists' Stories
Here is a short list of some popular personal memoirs or stories of journalists:
François Bizot. The Gate (London: Harvill Press, 2003) Bizot is a French ethnologist who had been studying Buddhist culture and history in rural Cambodia from 1965. He and two Cambodian colleagues were taken into captivity by the Khmer Rouge in 1971. This memoir describes his experiences while imprisoned in the Khmer Rouge prison camp M-13 at Anlong Veng, including his discussions with his interrogator, "Comrade Duch," who later became the director at S-21 (Tuol Sleng) prison in Phnom Penh. Bizot was in Phnom Penh at the time of the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975, and this memoir also describes his experiences with other foreigners who ended up in the French Embassy in Phnom Penh and his exit from Cambodia.
Nic Dunlop. The Lost Executioner: A Story of the Khmer Rouge (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005) Nic Dunlop is a Bangkok-based photojournalist. The Lost Executioner is the story of how Dunlop found Khmer Rouge leader, Kaing Guek Eav ("Comrade Duch"), living in the jungle. Duch was responsible for the atrocities committed at S-21 Prison.
Chanrithy Him. When Broken Glass Floats (New Yorok: WW Norton, 2001) This book recalls the author's experiences during Pol Pot period 1975-1979. This memoir is considered one of the best ones.
Jon Swain. River of Time (Vintage Books, 1997) Swain is a British journalist who spent five years in Cambodia and South Vietnam as a war correspondent. In this personal memoir, Swain discusses his life as a journalist covering the war in Vietman and Cambodia from 1970-1975 and his visits to Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1980s.
Nate Thayer. Archive of material by and about journalist Nate Thayer, 1988-2011. Nate Thayer has digitilized many of his stories and personal memoirs and commentaries including those on Cambodia. Nate Thayer is a freelance investigative journalist with extensive experience in Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodia, since 1984. He has interviewed many Khmer Rouge functionaries including senior officials, notably Pol Pot in October, 1997, a few months before Pol Pot's death in April, 1998. An archive of reports from 1988 to the present time, including excerpts from Thayer's yet unpublished memoirs Sympathy for the Devil: Living Dangerously in Cambodia - A Foreign Correspondent's Story is available at http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/.
Loung Ung. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Harper Collins, 2000). Loung Ung recalls the period of her childhood from age five when the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Phen. It includes the author's experiences as a child soldier. This book is considered to be one of the best personal memoirs. Loung Ung has written another book entitled Lucky Child.
Pin Yathay, with John Man. Stay Alive, My Son. (Simon and Schuster, 1987.). Pin Yathay's books was one of the first refugee accounts of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. It is considered among the best personal memoirs.
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