An incredibly timely and much-needed book on the variegated and ever-changing landscape of ethnicity and religious diversity in Myanmar, with fresh perspectives essential for better understanding the country's recent past as well as prospects for the future. * Thant Myint-U is an historian, writer, former Myanmar presidential adviser, founder of the Yangon Heritage Trust, and the chairman of U Thant House in Yangon. He has served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations and as the Chief of Policy Planning in the UN's Department of Political Affairs. He is the author most recently of The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century. * This important collaborative volume addresses the challenge of identity politics in Myanmar, an issue shared by many postcolonial contexts fractured along religious and ethnic lines. Written by an eminent group of scholars of and from Myanmar, this is undoubtedly a timely collection on a pressing set of social and political issues that has direct relevance for how we understand history, society and the state in Myanmar. * Melissa Crouch, Professor and Associate Dean Research, University of New South Wales, Australia * The fifteen excellent contributors to this volume fill a gap in contemporary scholarship by shedding light on Myanmars diverse and complex communities, and the relationships between them. This book should be essential reading not only for those working within Asian Studies or Identity Studies but also for all who are committed to the building of interreligious and inter-ethnic respect in situations of conflict. * Elizabeth J Harris, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Birmingham, UK * This pivotal moment in Myanmars history poses the question of whether solidarity against military rule can produce a society with justice for all ethnic and religious groups. This volume illuminates both the potential of this movement and its challenges by centering the experiences of minoritized ethnic and religious groups and their negotiations of Burmese Buddhist dominance. * Alicia M. Turner, Associate Professor, York University, Canada * This is a comprehensive volume on Myanmars current identity politics. It takes a detailed multi-disciplinary approach to the hierarchical model of diversity and the responses to Burmanization. It not only provides a historical reading of Myanmars current identity politics but also assesses the prospects by drawing on history, political science, social anthropology, and religious studies As such, it can offer a precious resource to students of East Asian history, Buddhism, and Japanese religions in general. -- Ugo Dessģ, University of Vienna, Austria * Religious Studies Review *
