Well written - Rated 
Very well written, factual and in depth without being too dry.
Excellent reading for anyone interested in or visiting Cambodia.
A Good Book about a most disturbing period. - Rated 
Pol Pot - The History of a Nightmare by Phillip Short is a good book about one of the most disturbing and shocking incidents in the late 20th century. It does not just deal with the infamous period in which Pol Pot ruled Cambodia through fear and terror but also the history leading up to this event and how there was nothing inevitable about what eventually happened but instead it was the result of a long process of missed opportunities. It is a well-written book which has a nice pace and although in my opinion is not quite as good as the author's work on Mao it is still a worthwhile read. All in all a good book but the sheer number of names and the different alliases of many of the people mentioned can make it confusing at times.
pol pot - Rated 
This book is a publication disaster for the following reasons 1.it is printed on cheap,dirty cream coloured paper 2.the type size-6 and 8 point- is far too small and makes reading very difficult after 2-3 pages 3.no attempt has been made to enhance the poor quanity pictures 4. the notes require a magnifying glass to read.Asit is over 500pages the book should have been printed A4 size.
Despite all the above the book is extremely well written and researched telling in great detail the horrors that engulfed Cambodia in the 1970s.
Ihad to give up reading the book because of the small print.
Very thorough. - Rated
This is a difficult read, very hard to keep tabs on who everybody is but a unmatchable account of Pol Pot and the Khymer Rouge.
Interesting, but overwhelming - Rated
Admittedly, having not lived at the period when the Khmer Rouges were in power, I knew nothing of the regime. All I had was a kind of hazy image of some blood thirsty dictator in Cambodia who was rather nasty.
So it was that I came across this book quite by accident, and thought, why not? I've always had a thing for history.
Initially, and I'll be honest, I found the book a daunting prospect. It was not so much the length as the cramped writing packed into each page, the myriad personalities, not helped by the fact that they change their names every five minutes, the number of organisations and the political situation at the time. And that is my main fault with the book. You are treated to a wealth of information. It comes so fast, and so detailed, that often you are only left with a vague impression, as you have to kind of filter the relevant information. But then, surely that is a fault of mine. As a serious historian it is the duty of Short to provide all the information, and this he does.
I also found that Short kind of brushed over certain subjects. For instance, when exactly did Sar become the Central commitee secretary? When did he make the step from a mediocre student in the Cercle Marxiste to his extreme vision of Communism? Why did Vorn vet end up in S 21?. Some quite major incidents are mentioned almost carelessly, while Short goes into depth about such irrelevant things as Sihanouks tour of the Khmer Rouge sites.
What I do like is the portrait it paints of the CPK, not so much as a totalitarian regime, but as an ideaoligist state, driven by international subterfuge both in the form of a U.S, bombing Cambodia to a pulp to cover it's own withdrawl from Vietnam, and China, eager to stop Vietnamese expansion.
I was impressed with how it portrayed the culture of lies and secrecy that would prove the regimes undoing, while also concentrating on the lives of ordinary Khmers, forced out of Phnom Penh to join collectives. It left me with a good notion of where Pot failed, why 1.5 million people died, at all levels, from top officials detained in Tuol Sleng and massive starvation on the ground level.
One thing I am glad, that I was not born in 'democratic' Kampuchea. I seriously advise this book if you seek a good understanding of Cambodia at this time.
|
