The Hidden History of Burma

A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2020

A New York Times Critic''s Pick 2019

''A sobering account, told elegantly and eruditely.'' Financial Times

''Thant Myint-U is the greatest living historian of Burma.'' William Dalrymple

Precariously positioned between China and India, Burma''s population has suffered dictatorship, natural disaster and the dark legacies of colonial rule. But when decades of military dictatorship finally ended and internationally beloved Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from long years of house arrest, hopes soared. World leaders including Barack Obama ushered in waves of international support. Progress seemed inevitable.

As historian, former diplomat, and presidential advisor, Thant Myint-U saw the cracks forming. In this insider''s diagnosis of a country at a breaking point, he dissects how a singularly predatory economic system, fast-rising inequality, disintegrating