When A history of Singapore was published in 1977, it was the first scholarly attempt by an academic to tell the history of Singapore in its own right, and not as an appendage of the broader canvas of regional, imperial or Malayan history. It was not the first book to envision Singapore's history as a distinct area of study. That pioneering effort belonged to H.F. Pearson's similarly titled A history of Singapore, published in 1956. But Pearson's general history of Singapore, and most of the books it later inspired, provided only ‘popular’ versions of its history. C.M. Turnbull's 1977 edition traced the island's story to 1975, the first decade of Singapore's independence, made use of both primary and secondary sources, and can be considered the first scholarly synthesis of the island's history. Since then, the young republic's economic and social achievements had thrust the island yet again into the spotlight, and merited a second edition, published in 1989, to take the story to the elections of 1988. This latest edition, renamed A modern history of Singapore, brings the story to 2005, the fortieth anniversary of Singapore's independence. It includes an examination of the changes that occurred after a younger generation of leaders took over the reins of power from the Old Guard to fulfil, as their predecessors had done, the same mission of ensuring Singapore's continued growth and stability in a vastly different world context.

Like its previous two editions, this revised volume approached the history of Singapore sequentially, with each of its 10 main chapters giving due weight to important turns in the island's progress over time. Starting with the narrative of Singapore's beginnings as a British settlement in 1819, the chapters survey its history in chronological fashion, with chapter breaks in the narrative marked by familiar political milestones such as its inclusion in the Straits Settlements in 1826, transfer to Colonial Office control in 1867, the relative calm of the interwar years contrasted with the upheaval of war with Japan in 1941 and subsequent Japanese occupation, followed in the aftermath of war by the onset of the struggle for ‘Merdeka’ from British rule, the creation of the new nation after its sudden separation and independence from Malaysia in 1965, and the taking over by the New Guard from 1990. The bulk of the chapters retain the essential narrative of the earlier editions, augmented where appropriate by additional content gleaned from the findings of recent scholarship. Using such new content, Turnbull, for example, was able to provide a fuller discussion in Chapter 1 of the pre-colonial history of Singapore than was possible in her earlier surveys. Compared to the second edition, this latest 2009 publication offers two new chapters — a 17-page ‘Introduction’ that provides an update of some of the recent developments in Singapore historiography, and Chapter 10, its last chapter, entitled ‘The New Guard, 1990–2005’, which surveys the changes under the premiership of Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's second prime minister, who replaced Lee Kuan Yew in 1990, and that of Lee Hsien Loong, who took over the reins from Goh in 2004. Chapter 9, titled ‘The Republic of Singapore, 1965–1988’ in the second edition, has also been expanded and renamed ‘The New Nation, 1965–1990’ to make up for the years between 1988 and 1990. The valuable bibliographical survey in the earlier editions has also been further augmented to provide an updated guide to the major archival sources and mainly English-language publications relating to Singapore for those interested in reading further.

That modern Singapore is a unique creation and merits its own national history is a theme that Turnbull returns to in this new edition. She observes that modern-day Singapore is ‘a place of anomalies’, boasting one of the world's most open and successful economies but also retaining an authoritarian constitutional democracy that the liberal West decries as undemocratic, and yet ‘might find much that could be instructive for their own ailing democracies’ (p. 17). Small and devoid of natural resources, the island's continued political existence often intrigued and confounded its nay-sayers. Faced with the prospect of extinction on many occasions throughout its history, and especially after its separation from Malaysia, Singapore bounced back each time and prospered spectacularly to defy its critics. So what made Singapore tick? In Turnbull's view, Singapore's survival and success lay in its intelligent and quick-witted ability to adapt to changing circumstances. ‘Throughout her history’, Turnbull writes, ‘she was saved by the intelligent and vigorous exploitation of opportunity and by a constant need for delicate balancing and quick wittedness, which continued to serve her well in modern times’ (p. 375). But years of economic success also carried risks of future backsliding and the ominous prospect of Singapore fading into becoming ‘a decaying Venice of the Orient’ (p. 17), a recurring concern that is never far from the minds of its leaders. To escape such a possible future, Turnbull concludes that Singapore ‘can never relax in its adaptability to change’ (p. 375).

Interest in its national history has been growing in Singapore in recent years, stimulated partly by the government's efforts since the late 1990s to give the ‘Singapore Story’ a prominent place in the school curriculum to achieve nation-building goals. The publication of this updated edition is therefore both timely and welcomed. At 468 pages long, and packed with a wealth of information, A history of modern Singapore is the most comprehensive single volume currently available on the general history of Singapore. This revised edition is likely to be regarded as the late Professor Turnbull's best work on Singapore.