New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2013. The Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian History consist of a set of original chapters on the major themes that have developed in the study of modern Southeast Asian history since the mid-18th century. The contributions by experts in their field are clustered under three major headings – Political History, Economic History, and Social and Cultural History – and the chapters challenge, or even erase, boundaries between topics and regions.