Michael D. Barr is Associate Professor in International Relations, Flinders University, Australia. He is Editor-in-Chief of Asian Studies Review and the author of Cultural Politics and Asian Values, Paths Not Taken: Political Pluralism in Post-War Singapore (edited with C. Trocki), Constructing Singapore (with Z. Skrbiš), Lee Kuan Yew, and The Ruling Elite of Singapore: Networks of Power and Influence (I.B.Tauris).

• List of Maps List of FiguresForeword by Carl A. TrockiPrologueAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsGlossary of Asian-Language TermsTimeline1. Let's Talk About 1819: Reorienting the National Narrative2. The Idea of Singapore3. Singapore Central: The Role of Location in Singapore's History4. Governance in Premodern Singapore5. Governance in Modern Singapore, 1867–19656. Governance in Independent Singapore7. The Economy: Singapore, Still at the Centre8. Making Modern Singaporeans: People, Society and PlaceAfterwordNotesBibliographyIndex

The meritocratic ideology of Singapore has begun to show signs of wear, and its elite seems incapable of regenerating itself as that of the PRC does. Lee [Kuan Yew]’s pioneer generation – the ‘Men in White’ – has given way to an ever more circumscribed stratum, a process which Michael Barr, the leading historian of modern Singapore, examines in rich detail.