THE VIETNAM WAR examines the origins, course, and consequences of the wars in Vietnam, providing a balanced, broadly accessible narrative that takes account of the latest research in multiple languages and reflects changing scholarly understandings of the war.

"Crisply concise...Delves into the 'whys' of the war: why the Vietnamese fought against the United States, why the great powers were involved, why the war turned out as it did and why legacies of the war linger."--Philip Seib,Dallas Morning News "[A] succinct history of a frustrating war that raised several painful issues America's leaders are now encountering for a second time...A pithy and compelling account of an intensely relevant topic."--Kirkus Reviews "Distills the US's longest war into a short, readable narrative...This brief summary of the tangled negotiations that prolonged the suffering caused by the war is perhaps Lawrence's most valuable contribution, since it covers an area that more extensive histories overlook...A valuable addition to any academic library...Essential."--C.C. Lovett, CHOICE "The book lives up to its brief and accessible billing..."--Publishers Weekly "In an elegant, almost elegiac prose style, Mark Lawrence takes us through the history of the Vietnam War in a narrative that transcends the usual focus on Vietnam and the United States. There is no other one volume history of the war that so thoroughly captures the war as an event in world history."--Marilyn B. Young, author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 "A succinct and persuasive account of the Second Indochina War in its global context. At a time when the current U.S. involvement in Iraq evokes uneasy memories of America's controversial 'war of choice' in Vietnam, Mark Lawrence's thoughtful analysis of that previous conflict is highly welcome."--William J. Duiker, author of Ho Chi Minh: A Life "In this concise history of the Vietnam War, Mark Lawrence does a masterful job of transforming a highly complex and controversial subject into a brilliant and balanced histoire synthèse. A rare feat."--Christopher Goscha, Universite du Quebec a Montreal "It takes skill to condense a massive subject into a concise, entertaining, and accessible book. This is what Mark Atwood Lawrence accomplishes in his 224 page book The Vietnam War: A Concise International History...This book might be even more attractive than the larger volumes on the subject because it is succint and focuses on the primary issues of the war."--Shelton Woods, Resources "In less than two hundred pages of clear, crisp prose, Mark Atwood Lawrence succeeds in 'examining the American role within a broadly interntional conext...' The information Lawrence packs into such a short volume is most impressive: his 'introductory study' is both comprehensive and economical...Lawrence achieves his principal objective reminding us that the geopolitical environment decisively shaped the Vietnam experience in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries."--Gregory A. Daddis, Michigan War Studies Review "Lawrence has produced a general survey of the war that will likely become a standard resource in undergraduate courses...One cuold not ask for a better 'concise' history than the survey Lawrence has written. His prose style is always clear and often elegant...For a subject that has all too often inspired overwrought critiques of the various parties involved in the conflict, it is refreshing to have a synthesis that adopts a more neutral and dispassionate view of the Vietnam War."--James McAllister, History: Reviews of New Books

Selling point: Offers a brief narrative of the Vietnam War that covers the French war and US involvement Selling point: Incorporates newly available material from China, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam, along with American and Western European sources Selling point: Discusses legacies of the war, including contemporary Vietnam and the controversies over the war in Iraq

Mark Atwood Lawrence is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam, which won the 2006 George Louis Beer Prize and Paul Birdsall Prize of the American Historical Association. He is also the co-editor of The First Vietnam War: Colonial Conflict and Cold War Crisis, and the editor of The New York Times Twentieth Century in Review: The Vietnam War.

Selling point: Offers a brief narrative of the Vietnam War that covers the French war and US involvement Selling point: Incorporates newly available material from China, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam, along with American and Western European sources Selling point: Discusses legacies of the war, including contemporary Vietnam and the controversies over the war in Iraq