A Continent Erupts

Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-1955

By: Ronald H. Spector

Narrated by: BJ Harrison

The end of World War II led to the United States' emergence as a global superpower. For Western Europe it marked the beginning of decades of unprecedented cooperation and prosperity that one historian has labeled "the long peace." Yet half a world away, in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, and Malaya—the fighting never really stopped, as these regions sought to completely sever the yoke of imperialism and colonialism with all-too-violent consequences.

East and Southeast Asia quickly became the most turbulent regions of the globe. Within weeks of the famous surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri, civil war, communal clashes, and insurgency engulfed the continent, from Southeast Asia to the Soviet border. By early 1947, full-scale wars were raging in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Within a decade after the Japanese surrender, almost all of the countries of South, East, and Southeast Asia that had formerly been conquests of the Japanese or colonies of the European powers experienced wars and upheavals that resulted in the deaths of at least 2.5 million combatants and millions of civilians.

With A Continent Erupts, acclaimed military historian Ronald H. Spector draws on letters, diaries, and international archives to provide a comprehensive military history and analysis of these little-known but decisive events.

©2022 Ronald H. Spector (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

OUTSTANDING

This is an excellent book.
Growing up in a military environment and discussing politics and military actions with my father, this book brought many discussions back to me.
This is a very important part of world history and we have not seen the end of it.
The narrator, mr. Harrison, did an outstanding job.
My thanks to all involved, JK.

Excellent

A true must read for like myself a junky of anything French Indochina War. There is limited books about the French Indochina war that planted the seeds to the Second Indochina War, ie US Vietnam war.
A Continent Erupts chapters on the Chinese Civil War, Indonesia and Malaysia, I struggled listening too. The chapters over the French Indochina War are top notch right up there with Benard Fall's: Street without Joy and Hell in a very Small Place and Embers of War and much better then the most recent books I've read over the same topic.

Detailed Military History

This was much more focused in details of battles and commanders and much less on the historical roots of current Asian affairs than I expected.