Southeast Asia in Ruins. Art and Empire in the Early 19th Century, written by Sarah Tiffin

2016 was the 200th anniversary of the British returning Java to the Dutch after the Napoleonic Wars. It also saw the first major scholarly publications on early nineteenth century British colonialism in Southeast Asia since the 1990s: Farish Noors The Discursive Construction of Southeast Asia in 19th-Century Colonial- Capitalist Discourse, Gareth Knapmans Race and British Colonialism in Southeast Asia, and the subject of this review, Sarah Tiffins lavishly presented Southeast Asia in Ruins.