Having already written several great works on Burma’s history and its modern challenges, Thant Myint-U once more rises to the challenge and again shows himself to be one of its foremost experts with his latest book, “The Hidden History of Burma.” After being deeply personally involved in the momentous shifts that Burma has undergone in the last few years, he has combined his extensive personal and professional experiences with his scholarship to craft a simultaneously wide-spanning but also uniquely intimate look into the country at present. His thorough coverage includes (but of course is not limited to):

- The country’s rapidly changing and fractious political system
- The fierce identity conflicts that have already long-wracked the nation and continue to fiercely do so
- A recent economic rollercoaster that has created great wealth for some but has proven to be underwhelming for the majority of the nation’s people
- Burma’s particularly acute and growing vulnerability to climate change

And although each one of the aforementioned is a highly complex topic in its own right, they are all brilliantly condensed into a highly accessible narrative. Any reader with so much as a passing interest in this nation yet has little to no prior background knowledge can still pick this book up and come away feeling like a minor expert on a country of nearly 55 million that now finds itself at a major make-or-break crossroads. Through the “The Hidden History of Burma”, Thant Myint-U has more or less crafted what can serve as the perfect how-to guide to understanding present-day Burma, or at least until he writes his next book.