Vietnam history

As I was dining on a terrific breakfast of marinated pork and sausage at tank noodle, it dawned on me that I knew nothing about Vietnamese history except for the Vietnam war. In an effort to alleviate my ignorance (at least on this subject) I was looking for a book on Amazon. However, when you type in Vietnam/history all that is returned are books on the war. Does anyone know a book that starts in the early 1800s and goes up to the war? I'm assuming that there isn't a volume that covers the war and post-war era in a single volume, but if there were that would be ideal. Thanks in advance.

Take a look at http://countrystudies.us/vietnam/ beginning with the Nguyen Dynasty, if you want to start in the early 1800s. It's unlikely you'll find a book precisely hitting the period you describe, but it's generally the long period of French colonialism in Vietnam (interrupted only by a nasty, brutish, and short period of Japanese occupation).

Generally available stuff will include Joseph Buttinger's The Smaller Dragon (and several other books of his), Bernard Fall's books, and lots of academic history by David Marr, see http://rspas.anu.edu.au/people/personal/marrd_pah.php

I went to Amazon, hoping to jog my memory of the title of a good book on Vietnam which I read for a college course* many years ago. I didn't succeed in that, but did come across the following book, which looks good for really early history (prehistory to tenth century):

The Birth of Vietnam
by Keith Weller Taylor
(link to Amazon page)

and this one which goes from mid-1800's through the war:


Understanding Vietnam
by Neil L. Jamieson
(link to Amazon page)

Both get very glowing reviews.

* The course was called "Comparative Revolutions." Happy anniversary of ours!

Thanks for the help. I'll check those resources out.

There was a hindu civilization in the middle of Vietnam called the Kingdom of Champa. Rather advanced and quite spectacular cities, pre-bombing anyway. It seems to have been pretty dominant up to the mid 19th century. Look for books on that.

The Buddhist and Christian influences came from Western European and Chinese incursions, of course, and are not so interesting, though I think Champa was from an Indian incursion, too. The country itself, in fact, seems to be somewhat of a French colonial construct. Prior to that I think it was just a set of adjacent, but mostly unrelated regions, with different tribal populations. Hmong, Thai, Lao and lots more tribes. Champa may have been the major kingdom. The Emperors of Vietnam, even, were just French puppets, and the position was totally created by France.

But I am far from an expert, most of this information coming from guide books and an extended visit a couple of years ago. Great place to visit, including wonderful and healthy food. The further north one goes in the country, the better, too, because in the south the war still dominates things to a large (and sad) degree.

Actually the Chams fought with just about everybody except the French and French backed Vietnamese colonial powers. The Chams were gone by then. They tangled with the Chinese, Khmer, Mongols and Vietnamese for 14 or 15 centuries until they were attacked and pushed south under the Le Dynasty. After the Le repulsed the Chinese, they began a southward expansion, routing the Chams first in 1471. The Chams were reduced to vassalage under the Nguyens, with many Cham royals fleeing to Cambodia and Malacca. In late 17th C, the French presence in Vietnam was primarily a bunch of Jesuits trying to Latinize the Viets in the north ("vietnamia est omnis divisa in partes tres" was more or less true then).

There is a small museum of Cham art in Danang ("Bao Tang Dieu Khac Cham" but missing lots of diacriticals) that was pretty run down when I was there in 1989, but the Internets tell me it's been refurbed nicely and is now a pleasant place to visit.

Abraus, I found a dusty copy of Lloyd C. Gardner's Approaching Vietnam on my bookshelf. It covers the period from WWII to Dienbienphu, so the French Indochina War, and is available used on Amazon for about $6. I don't remember much about it, but the one customer review there is positive.