via Asia Times, 06 December 2020: A new book by John Burgess looks at Angkor in the modern era.
Most books about Angkor, the fabulous temple city in northwestern Cambodia, focus on its ancient history, when it was capital of an empire that ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia, then took a long slumber in the forest. A new volume, Angkor’s Temples in the Modern Era: War, Pride, and Tourist Dollars, looks at what came next. French colonial archaeology, early tourism, the temples’ emergence as a symbol of the Cambodian nation and a site to be fought over by rival factions – these and other recent events are part of Angkor’s contemporary history. The author, former Washington Post foreign correspondent John Burgess, first visited Angkor in 1969 and has returned frequently in recent years.
