Product Description

Written for the Edexcel specification, this in-depth A2 study looks at the US relationship with South East Asia in the context of the Cold War. Emphasis is placed on the roles of Johnson and Nixon which are both heavily covered in the exams and assignments. contains thorough and up-to-date exam preparation, including practice questions, advice on what makes a good answer and help for students on how to interpret the questions and plan essays. is written by an expert author team who have a wide experience of teaching and examining A-level History and focus on exactly what students need to know and how to prepare for the exam.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149800 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Essential
An esential purchase for anyone taking the Edexcel module Containing Communism? The USA in South East Asia which this book was specifically written for.

Very handy
While not an edexcel candidate I found this book very useful for research and revision in preparation for my OCR modern history exam. This book provides excellent, detailed information to put into a history essay. However one problem with this book is that it can be too detailed for an A-level student such as myself providing,in some cases, irrelevant information. But if your willing to 'filter' the information it is very useful and I believe that it helped me considerably to achieve an A grade in AS level History.
I highly recommend the book, but be prepared to decipher the appropriate information.

AS Level? Surely you mean university degree level...?
I am studying AS Level Edexcel History, and for Unit 1 this topic was chosen for me. For personal preference as to what an AS Level student requires from a history textbook, this one didn't really hit the mark.

It CANNOT be faulted on depth of content and detail...oh no. The book is absolutely packed to the brim with every possible date, event and name related to the Korean and Vietnam wars, and is definitely a fantastic resource for those wanting to get a good understanding of a timeline of events and the key figures or military events. However this is where the book's use really ended for me.

The vast degree of detail and information is frankly quite overwhelming, and way beyond the requirements of an A Level exam - upon reading I found myself consistently asking: 'Do I need to know this?' The exam boards are frequently stressing the importance of 'not drifting into narrative' and keeping your essays analytical, and if a student used this textbook alone to study the subject I don't think they would score especially well in the exam room. There is very little coverage of key debates and does not deepen the level of insight into the main focus areas like 'Why did the USA lose the Vietnam War?' The book tends to narrate episodes of history that bear little relevance to the syllabus and instead of presenting the facts in a clear and accessible way this textbook intimdates the reader and does little to prepare him for success.

This textbook was issued to our class by our school, and I have largely left it alone. To its credit, it does provide me with an invaluable source of information if I want to check on a date or make more detailed notes on a timeline of events, but otherwise it has remained at the bottom of my locker. For me a textbook should provide a lot more, and that's perhaps what a more basic textbook would do, rather than an 'advanced' version like this.

If you are looking to get an A in your A Level and want a textbook that will prepare you suitably for this then my advice would be to steer clear of Christine Bragg's publication and go for something more simple and grounded, like the exam board's own publication. If, on the other hand, you are obsessed with modern history and get a real thrill from learning everything there possibly is to know about US Foreign Policy from 1945-75 in Indochina then this might be the book for you...if not, I'd advise you to search elsewhere.