Among Insurgents: Walking Through Burma

Among Insurgents: Walking Through Burma
by Shelby Tucker

Among Insurgents: Walking Through Burma
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Book Summary Information

Author: Shelby Tucker
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-07-14
ISBN: 1860645291
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Book Reviews of Among Insurgents: Walking Through Burma

Book Review: An interesting tale worth some consideration
Summary: 3 Stars

Shelby Tucker nursed a long-time ambition to walk across Burma. Unlike most people with eccentric ambitions, he was able to realize his as a middle aged man. His traveling companion was a young Swede who had recently completed his military service. They were taken on by members of indigenous militias and travelled with with them through the Kachin State in northern Burma to India, with a brief detour through Yunnan, China. Tucker is a previously unpublished writer and a non-practicing lawyer. Although his story focuses on the people he met and the things he saw on his journey, it also becomes apparent that he is a well-connected scion of the Mississippi Delta who has probably managed to enjoy an adventurous life (and professional failure as an author) thanks to family money. He eludes the Burmese Army, but is quickly captured and treated as a spy in India. His and his wife's various connections to a host of foreign service officers and Republican politicians (as well as a journalist who had done a similar trek) ultimately lead to his freedom. Tucker has done his homework in terms of regional history and subsequent events (including the fates of various people and groups he encountered). He returned to the US and UK (where he was living) and acted as an advocate for the Kachins (and perhaps over-estimates his influence, although it probably was timely).

The prose is servicable, but not inspiring. The book drags in places through the middle and is strongest at the beginning and end of the journey. Tucker is obviously a bit self-absorbed and sometimes arrogant---eccentric adventurers are not necessarily the most avuncular of people, afterall. He also seems a bit to taken in by the point of view of Protestant missionaries and their proteges. Oddly, one hears nothing about Catholic missions in the same area and there is little understanding of Theravada Buddhism and its formal or cultural relationship to the Burmans. There also seems to be little curiosity how Christianity and beliefs about spirits and nats manage to coexist. These drawbacks aside, it is an ultimately engaging look at a place that few Westerners have seen.

Summary of Among Insurgents: Walking Through Burma

Among Insurgents describes the author's journey into Burma through a border area of China closed to foreigners, through the Shan and Kachin States, and out of Burma via an area of India closed to foreigners. En route, he was detained by Communist insurgents, handed over to Kachin insurgents and arrested by the Indian Army. Among Insurgents also examines the symbiotic relationship between the civil war in Burma and the international drugs trade. The author interviewed growers of opium poppies and leaders on both sides of the narcotics divide, and his report to the US National Security Council may have contributed to Washington's changed perception of the Burmese Army as the main player in the trade.

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