Glassman (geography, U. of British Columbia, Vancouver) examines regional integration in the Greater Mekong Subregion as a branch of broader development processes in East and Southeast Asia. He leads readers around the five countries and the two provinces of China to show how people"s lives are being knit together or torn apart because of the Subregion"s development. He pays special attention to the corner of it referred to as the economic quadrangle--Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Yunnan--to tell a story about the process of economic, political, and sociocultural integration. Among his insights are thinking the spaces and places of class, turning battlefields into marketplace-battlefields, and harnessing resources and labor. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)