BOOK REVIEW: The Straits Philosophical Society and Colonial Elites in Malaya

Selected Papers on Race, Identity, and Social Order 1893-1915. Edited by Lim Teck Ghee and Charles Brophy. Published by ISEAS, 462 pp, 2023

By: Azly Rahman

Almost a decade ago, I was made aware of this work on colonial history by one of Asia’s most prolific social scientists, Lim Teck Ghee who conceived it as a commentary of essays, and today after almost fifty years, the much-awaited collection of the writings of the colonial elites of The Straits Philosophical Society had come to elegant f…