How Pol Pot Came to Power: A History of Communism in Kampuchea, 1930-1975 - Ben Kiernan - Pa... Book

2.5 stars
NB: there is nothing factually incorrect in this book.
I chose to read this book as soon I will be studying Cambodia in my History class. The quotes and excerpts my textbook gave from this book were good and conclusive making me very interested in what else Kiernan had to write. In hindsight, I probably should have waited to study the topic in full before reading this book. My main problem with reading this book was that the time period covered 1930-75 is such a large time period that with so much going on within Cambodia and surrounding nations meant that there was simply too much information to handle. Half way through the book I felt as if it lost relevance to Pol Pot and spent more time analysing other political leaders and parties. When I picked up this book I also knew Kiernan was a strong supporter of the idea that Pol Pot would not have come to power if it was not for the incessant bombing campaigns of the US. When I got to this part of the book there was such so much information and evidence that the argument and reasoning got lost in between.

I would like to revisit this book in a few months after finishing my Cambodia and Pol Pot unit at school.