Red Hills: Migrants and the State in the Highlands of Vietnam

"The migration of some six million Vietnamese from the lowlands to the hills and mountains was one of the largest population transfers in twentieth-century Southeast Asia. Unlike the Indonesian transmigration program, however, the Vietnamese resettlement experience has received little scholarly attention. With this impressively researched volume, for which he won the 2005 Henry J. Benda Prize for Outstanding New Scholar of Southeast Asian Studies, Andrew Hardy has gone a long way toward filling this void" (Pacific Affairs).

A groundbreaking study of the settlement of Vietnam's highland regions, this volume offers a historical analysis of and provides profound insights into the political economy of migration both in Vietnam and elsewhere. It shows how socialist policies especially changed the face of the highlands, as settlers from the plains turned the hills 'red'. Placing people's experiences in the context of government policy and national history, this book can be read as a contribution to migration studies in Southeast Asia, but also as a grassroots history of twentieth-century Vietnam. Written in a lively style and illustrated by numerous maps and photographs, this study promises to become a classic in Vietnamese historical studies.
          In recognition of the contribution made by this study, Andrew Hardy was awarded the 2005 Harry J. Benda Prize for Outstanding New Scholar of Southeast Asian Studies.