Vietnam's Coal Frontier

'Vietnam's Coal Frontier unearths a fascinating history of colonial capitalism, transnational commodity flows, ecological exploitation, and human labor and resistance. A landmark work in the growing field of Vietnamese economic and environmental history.' Charles Keith, Michigan State University

'Vietnam's Coal Frontier tells the fascinating story of coal mining in northern Vietnam from its precolonial foundations to its industrial expansion under French rule. In following a wide array of actors human and nonhuman - most memorably, perhaps, the fast-growing, hard-timbered filao used for mine props - this book vividly reveals how extraction reshaped the region's social and environmental landscapes in considerable - and sometimes quite surprising - ways.' Victor Seow, author of Carbon Technocracy

'Vietnam's Coal Frontier: Mining, Environment and Empire provides a rigorously researched history of the role of Vietnam's important coal mining industry in the rise of its modern economy. By exploring the profound impact of colonial-era mining on forests, aquaculture, and urban development in the coal frontier of northeastern Vietnam, the book supplements its thoroughly original economic story with a fascinating environmental history of this understudied region of the country. While early sections of the book feature a mass of previously unexploited documentary material unearthed from French colonial archives, a final chapter employs a trove of Vietnamese language journalism and poetry to paint a rich portrait of the cultural and social lives of local mining communities. In addition to making a major contribution to the academic scholarship on modern Vietnamese history, Vietnam's Coal Frontier is also a pleasure to read.' Peter Zinoman, University of California, Berkeley