Faizah Zakaria is assistant professor in the Departments of Southeast Asian Studies and Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore. She is coeditor of Fatwas of Singapore: Science, Medicine and Health.
In its contents and methods, this captivating case study has far broader relevance beyond its regional focus. * Choice * While historians have produced studies of individual polities in the region before and after the imposition of imperial rule, The Camphor Tree and the Elephant is the first to situate this transition in a much larger environmental and religious perspective, thus providing a vibrant reevaluation of approaches to the Southeast Asian past. * Journal of Southeast Asian Studies *