In Burma/Myanmar:What Everyone Needs to Know, David I. Steinberg pierces the curtain erected by a hostile regime to reveal the nation's social, political, and cultural realities. Renamed Myanmar by the military government in 1989, it both enjoys the legacy of a long history of independence and suffers from the legacies of its past as a British colony. Today, Steinberg writes, it is largely defined by overlapping crises that affect every aspect of life.

An examination of the current political crisis in Burma, and in particular its Buddhist and socio-psychological aspects.

This selection of lectures by Professor Hla Pe, who has published widely in the fields of Burmese language and literature, and cultural studies, provides an insight into Burmese literature, culture, beliefs and way of life through the author’s own personal life and career. The lectures are divided into six parts: On Literature, On Historiography, On Scholarship, On Language, On Life, and On Buddhism.