Southeast Asia can seem overwhelming to integrate into a course, given its eleven countries and considerable cultural diversity. Robert Dayley’s Southeast Asia in the New International Era steps in to save the day. Organized into thirteen chapters, the book provides a thorough overview and introduction to the political developments of each of the eleven countries. The introductory chapter provides a historical survey and a discussion of cultural features of the region, and the concluding chapter draws everything together by giving a useful overview of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is the most important regional organization in Southeast Asia. The remaining chapters focus on each particular country, and each is broken into sections: Institutions and Social Groups, State-Society Relations and Democracy, Economy and Development, Foreign Relations, and a Conclusion. This organizational strategy facilitates comparisons across chapters. Each chapter has endnotes with sources that are cited, which are useful for further study. The chapters are concise, and the average length of each is twenty-five pages. The book as a whole is highly readable, informative, and suitable for scholars looking to refresh, as well as those new to the study of Southeast Asia.