Jason Gibbs – författare

English-language scholarship all too often dismisses South Vietnam as an American creation, a product of US imperialism. Republican Vietnam boldly upends this depiction, exposing a diverse and dynamic portrait of the Second Republic. In twelve essays, each based on original archival research, the volume brings to life the Second Republic in all its complexities, displaying how politicians, students, educators, publishers, journalists, musicians, religious leaders, businessmen, and ordinary citizens built a highly intricate society—with dazzling entrepreneurial zeal, an outspoken press, globally engaged religions, a vibrant intellectual and associational culture, and a level of artistic production that remains unmatched since the Vietnam War. That inspired and frenzied age, though short lived, held a resilient spirit that Vietnamese refugees have kept alive. The trove of vernacular music and print media, not to mention the many associations the Vietnamese diaspora founded, exemplify the republican values that once energized South Vietnamese culture. But this nuanced society has appeared in popular media and American scholarship as a hopelessly dependent nation, led by corrupt dictators beholden to US interests. In contrast to such negative stereotypes, this account situates South Vietnamese front and center as agents of their own histories. Republican Vietnam is the first collection of scholarly essays on the Second Republic since the end of the Vietnam War. It is also among the first to use republicanism as a lens to re-examine twentieth-century Vietnamese history, the Vietnam War, and the diaspora. The twelve essays together show how war, in tandem with external intervention, shaped South Vietnam’s economy, culture, and the life of every individual and family. By featuring works from Vietnamese and Vietnamese diasporic studies, this text takes the important step of bridging the two fields, laying the foundation for cross-disciplinary projects in the future.

Pigs, Poultry and Poo is the story of two people who change their lives and discover a whole new world. Their first step is a move from living and working in the city to rural life and a two-hour commute. Over the five years recounted in the book they mature from feckless beginners to hardened country folk, shedding only the occasional tear when an animal dies. Their animal adventures start with a cat, before they move on to goats, and then chickens. Slowly building confidence they haphazardly add cows, pigs, alpacas, geese and ducks to their smallholding, before reaching a limit. On their journey they discover that cats like to sleep, that goats are poor predictors of the weather and that there is a serious possibility that a cow could jump over the moon. They pick up new skills, such as fencing, which they get to practise again and again as various animals helpfully demonstrate where they have gone wrong. There is occasionally the semblance of a plan, but often events overtake the couple and they have to learn to be resilient in the face of adversity. The animals have plenty of character, from the nervous goat and the grumpy cow to the randy pig. Looking after animals is often not easy, but at least for one newly countrified pair, it''s deeply satisfying.