Despite its 3,000 kilometre coastline, few people see Vietnam as a maritime country. Here Li Tana presents a powerful new argument about Vietnamese history: that key political changes resulted from the impact, economic and otherwise, of the sea. This is a finely layered account covering the two millennia before colonisation that radically restructures how we understand the role of the maritime and trans-regional in Vietnam's early history. Drawing on exhaustive research of Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese sources, Li reveals that it is only when viewed against the background of the sea that Vietnam's past can be properly understood. In contrast to traditional perceptions of an inward-looking society dominated by Chinese cultural influence, Vietnam was shaped by dynamic littoral economic and cultural contact.

‘In assiduity and breadth, this book surpasses even Prof. Li's now classic Nguyen Cochinchina. As a meticulous analysis of the intersection between external and domestic economies, A Maritime Vietnam provides not only for Vietnam, but for the region a model  longitudinal inquiry into a fundamental but substantially neglected theme. It will enhance Prof. Li's reputation as one of the most  original scholars ever to have worked in pre-colonial Southeast Asia history.’

Victor Lieberman - University of Michigan