Both drawing from and contributing to the newly expanded literature on social memory, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians present case studies in social memory from a wide range of historical contexts in different Southeast Asian countries. After contextualizing the region within the field of memory studies, they consider nationalisms and the construction of destinies, and traumatic memories: interpenetrations of collective and personal experience. Among the topics are ethnic minorities and the struggle for national independence in Laos, narrating Viet Nam, the Philippine experience of the Second World War, and traumatic experiences among wives of former political prisoners of the "1965 Event" in Indonesia. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)