BOOK REVIEW

COMMENTS (0)

RECOMMEND (374)

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

PLUSONE

MORE

E-MAIL

PRINT

TEXT SIZE

Burma in revolt remains a business environment conducive to illicit profits as the major players reside in “Special Regions”—ceasefire zones granted conditional autonomy by the central government.

Bertil Linter, arguably the most astute chronicler of Burma’s drug trade since Alfred McCoy, and Michael Black, a security writer (and evidently an experienced alleyway-creeper of drug production zones in Burma), have produced a concise, informative and eminently engrossing book. Perhaps in homage to its subject matter, it’s a quick read. It is studies such as this, and the highly detailed “insider” accounts of the Chiang Mai-based Shan Herald Agency for News, that have peeled the rotten onion of the drug trade in Burma.

Merchants of Madness fits the description of popular history rather than the more staid academic treatments. Anyone working in or on Southeast Asia should read this book.

David Scott Mathieson is Burma consultant for the New York-based Human Rights Watch