The shifting balance of economic power away from Western Europe and the United States and towards East and Southeast Asia - firstly Japan, then the small 'Tiger' economies, and now the larger nations of Southeast Asia and China, the potential 'Dragons' - has provoked anger, dismay and a search for the 'secrets' of growth and for 'lessons' to be learned. The Rise of Asia brings together recent scholarship analysing the process of economic, social and political development in East and Southeast Asia from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.