Over the past twenty years missionary work and the writing it generated has received a significant amount of critical scholarly attention. Despite this, Michaud argues that the scholarly anthropological value of modern mission writing has been overlooked and, in particular, that the study of French Catholic missionaries in what was then French-occupied Indochina is of special importance for a number of reasons. He argues that because of the relatively short tenure of empire in south-east Asia and the focus of its resources (away from development and education and on the lowlands in the territories claimed in Indochina) and because of the violence of the decolonising project that resulted in civil war in the mid-twentieth century, the work of amateur missionaries has been of critical importance since the 1990s, when development of and access to ‘highland’ territories increased with government support for their advancement. He argues that this development has ended a virtual silence about the region – and that current inter-ethnic relations and economic and environmental development can only be bettered by referencing the amateur work produced by missionaries in the late nineteenth century. In order to present this colonial missionary ethnography, Michaud first looks backwards chronologically, and considers experience in other regions, in order to pinpoint the ethnographic activity of French Catholic missionaries before focusing on their selection and training; he then introduces that cadre of men whose ethnographic writing made important contributions to writing about the region, either as they worked under the French state and/or in Catholic missions, and to a great or lesser degree served the interests of the local population. The strength of Michaud's analysis lies not in his section on North American missions, but in his work on those on the Tonkin-Yunnan frontier, as specified in his subtitle. Thus, part iv of the book, where the author outlines the lives and writings of three missionaries in particular – Paul Vial, Alfred Liétard and François-Marie Savina – is by far the most evocative and informative of the entire work. Michaud paints a vivid picture of the lives of these three members of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP) and analyses the scholarly connections of their work. It is fascinating to learn about Lietard's production of a Lol-French dictionary and Vial's creating a short-lived model village for the local ethnic minority. Savina was well-educated, and appears to have worked as a diplomat and as an intelligence-gatherer for the French military. Further analysis of the frequency of meaning of such roles would have been welcome. While the final section of the book argues that missionary writings, despite the perspective and goals of their authors, have much to offer in anthropological terms, in fact Michaud's own work does too little to illustrate that argument. There is plenty of post-structural literature that aligns nicely with his position, but in fact his account of the authors overshadows the ethnographic value of their work. I believe what he is saying, but I would like to see more analysis of the observations and arguments themselves in order to be convinced.