Shorter essays by Michael Roberts, gathered as a companion volume to his earlier anthology Confrontations in Sri Lanka: Sinhalese, LTTE and Others. Where that collection drew together longer pieces, this one assembles writing addressed to a Sri Lankan readership — and to Sri Lankans and others abroad who follow the island's contemporary sociology and politics closely, including the arguments that surround its history and the ways that history is narrated.
Roberts is a historian and anthropologist born in Sri Lanka, who taught at Peradeniya before moving to the University of Adelaide. He has written across Sri Lankan social history, nationalism and the ethnic conflict, and is a familiar name to anyone who reads in this field. The essay form here means pieces that are self-contained and can be read singly rather than straight through.
The text is in English, so it needs no Sinhala or Tamil to use, and the frame of reference is Sri Lankan political argument rather than an introductory survey — readers already acquainted with the subject will get most from it.
Of interest to students of South Asian politics and history, to researchers working on Sri Lanka, and to diaspora readers keeping up with debate at home.
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