With the publication of his latest exquisitely crafted history, Anthony Reid has written the most exciting exploration of nationalism and political identity in Southeast Asia since Benedict Anderson's Imagined communities (London: Verso, 1983, 1991). In Imperial alchemy, he argues that, unlike the fate of multiethnic empires in Europe, the imperial-constructed states of Southeast Asia to the surprise of many have stubbornly endured. To help us better understand this contrast, unlike Anderson, Reid recognises the imperative to ground an understanding of nationalism in an experience specific to Asia. Accordingly, he develops a four-part typology: (1) ethnie nationalism; (2) state nationalism; (3) anti-imperialism nationalism; and (4) outrage at state humiliation nationalism, ‘a category which is characteristically Asian as a reaction to the humiliations the state was seen to have undergone over two centuries at the hands of barbarians’ (p. 6). Weaving grand narratives with exceptional local richness, Reid demonstrates how the mixing-and-matching of these nationalisms has successfully contained challenges to the state by providing sufficient political space for alternative identities to coexist, although at times combatively, alongside state fealty.

For Reid, the imperial alchemy of state endurance shines brighter in Southeast Asia than in its Northeast counterpart, for the latter possesses a long and storied legacy of statehood. But it is in what he calls ‘state averse’ Southeast Asia where, despite noted exceptions, ‘Its highlands and islands, in particular, never developed bureaucratic law-giving states on a significant scale and were wary of the externally supported states in their midst.’ (p. 18) This was the crucible in which the ‘base metal of empire would have to be transmuted into the gold of nationhood’.

After a deft survey of the literature on nationalism, interspersed with thoughtful reflections on competing nationalisms in Asia and Europe, in chapter two Reid narrows his focus and builds a case for a distinctive Southeast Asian experience in which different forms of nationalism have blossomed and taken shape. To keep the narrative focused and tidy, he divides the chapter into thematic sections, foregrounding five markers of modernity that have contributed to the emergence of Southeast Asian nationalisms: (1) language; (2) religion; (3) bounded sovereign space; (4) censuses; and (5) names. The chapter further delineates four patterns on the role that colonialism played in forming political identities in the region: (1) expanding an ethnie core — Burma, Vietnam, Siam; (2) protecting fragile monarchies — Malaya, Cambodia, Laos; (3) transforming trade empires to revolutionary unities — the Philippines, Indonesia; and (4) ethnicising the stateless.

The remainder of the book comprises a number of illuminating case studies designed to test the imperial alchemy thesis, dragging Reid into the messy worlds of regional history and local politics. Steering clear of easy cases, such as the Javanese and Tagalogs (regarding their relationship to state nationalism), he tackles difficult groups whose identities have at times sat uneasily with state nationalism. How these entities came to see themselves as ethnic groups, how they contributed to the imperial alchemy and how their relationship to state nationalism has unfolded over time is featured in each chapter.

For Reid, the Chinese (chapter 3) stand as a crucial category across the region, for their peculiarly developed ethnie nationalism only materialised as a diaspora community divorced from the strong state-attachment of their mainland counterparts and ancestors. As critically, they played a key role in sparking the anti-imperial nationalism characteristic of Southeast Asia. Malayness (chapter 4) is a similarly odd construct whose meaning has shifted from referencing a specific locale to a vaguely defined nation or people under colonial and then postcolonial auspices. Reid describes the Acehnese (chapter 5) as unique in the Indonesian outer island context for authentic identification through their sultanate, while also going to great lengths to test the resilience of Indonesia's anti-imperialism-cum-state nationalism. The ethnie nationalism of the Batak of North Sumatra (chapter 6) has been attenuated, yet accentuated, in the aggressive world of Indonesia's modern urban culture and economy. Finally, efforts of the understudied Kadazan elite of Sabah (chapter 7) to ground an ethnie nationalism has waxed and waned in the heated politics of Malaysia's competitive, electoral tugs-of-war. The depth of these case studies forms a striking contrast with the broad expanse of the book's opening chapters. Narratives flow effortlessly, making the book a pleasure to read.

For Tony Reid it was more than 15 years between manuscripts. Now that he is retired and thus freed from running research institutes, holding conferences and editing volumes, we hope a similar length of time does not pass until his next classic.