Southeast Asia from Depression to Re-occupation, 1925–45 by Malcolm Caldwell, provides a critical analysis of the forces that shaped modern Southeast Asia. Caldwell examines the impact of the global economic crisis of the 1920s and 1930s on the region, exposing how colonial economies collapsed under the weight of plummeting commodity prices while imperialist powers ruthlessly suppressed nationalist uprisings. The text highlights the rise of revolutionary movements, the significance of Japanese wartime occupation, and the post-war reassertion of Western dominance, particularly through U.S. imperialist hegemony. Caldwell’s analysis underscores the long struggle between foreign exploitation and national liberation, setting the stage for the revolutionary conflicts that defined Southeast Asia in the decades that followed.