The Barter Economy of the Khmer Rouge Labor Camps

Scott Pribble (San Francisco State University, United States)

$83.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Routledge
21 July 2023

Economic systems & structures

Series: The Cold War in Asia

Pribble investigates the barter economies that developed in many of the labor camps established under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

When the Khmer Rouge abolished currency and markets in 1975, starving Cambodians created underground exchanges in labor camps throughout the country, bartering luxury items for food and other necessities, while simultaneously undermining the regime’s ideological goals of eliminating any traces of capitalism in Democratic Kampuchea. Pribble asserts three key points about the barter economy in the Khmer Rouge labor camps. First, the underground exchanges in Democratic Kampuchea provided food and medicine for desperate people subsisting under a totalitarian regime, saving the lives of countless Cambodians. Second, bartering was the riskiest way to obtain food because it was dependent upon the discretion of two or more individuals from different social classes under the threat of violent punishment, thereby altering the social dynamics of the camps. Finally, despite the regime’s extreme efforts to eliminate foreign influence from the country and impose communist ideology on millions of citizens, basic forms of market capitalism and a demand for superfluous luxury goods persisted in labor camps throughout the country.

A fascinating study of the human consequences of imposing rigid ideology, that will be of particular interest to scholars and students of political history and Southeast Asian history.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

By: Scott Pribble (San Francisco State University United States)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 322g
ISBN: 9781032387024
ISBN 10: 1032387025
Series: The Cold War in Asia
Pages: 164
Publication Date: 21 July 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction 1. Revolution and the Labor Camps 2. The Abolition of Currency and Its Ideological Roots 3. Origins of the Barter Economy 4. Substitute Currencies: Rice and Gold 5. Other Substitute Currencies 6. Perils and Punishments 7. Chinese Khmers in the Underground Economy 8. Khmer Women and the Barter Economy 9. Base People versus New People 10. Cadres, Watches, and Lighter Chains 11. Aftermath Conclusion

Scott Pribble is a San Francisco-based historian, specializing in twentieth and twenty-first-century Cambodia.