Milton Edgeworth Osborne, is an Australian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, author, and consultant specializing in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

Education

Osborne attended

North Sydney Boys High School North Sydney Boys High School (abbreviated as NSBHS) is a government-funded, single-sex, academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In 2022, Nor ...

, graduated from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

and received his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. At the University of Sydney in the 1950s, he studied history with Jill Ker Conway. At Cornell University, he studied Southeast Asian history with OW Wolters.

Academic career

Osborne held academic positions in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Singapore. Osborne's main historical contribution had been to synthesize the history of the region as a whole, rather than concentrate on the histories of the present-day nations. Osborne's Southeast Asia association began in 1959 with an Australian diplomatic posting to Phnom Penh. In 1980 and 1981 Osborne advised the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

on the Cambodian refugee problem. In 1982 he returned to Australia, working as Head of the Asia Branch of the Office of National Assessments, also serving for a year as Head of Current Intelligence. Osborne now lives in Sydney and continues to write while consulting on Asian issues, as well as having been a series editor on the ''Short History of Asia Series'' published by Allen and Unwin.

Honours

Osborne was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Order (distinction), honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of Australia, Queen of Aus ...

in the 2021 Australia Day Honours for "significant service to history as an author."

Books

* ''Singapore and Malaysia'' (1964) * ''Strategic Hamlets in South Viet-Nam: A Survey and a Comparison'' (1965) * ''The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (1859–1905)'' (1969, reprinted 1997) * ''Region of Revolt: Focus on Southeast Asia'' (1970) * ''Politics and Power in Cambodia: The Sihanouk Years'' (Longman, 1973) *
River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition, 1866–1873
' (London and New York, 1975) * ''Southeast Asia: An Introductory History'' (eleven editions, 1979–2013) * ''Before Kampuchea: Preludes to Tragedy'' (1979) * ''Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness'' (1994) * ''River Road to China: The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866–73'' (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999) * ''The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future'', Allen & Unwin, Sydney (2000), * ''The paramount power: China and the countries of Southeast Asia'', (2006) * ''Phnom Penh: A Cultural and Literary History'' (2008)

Articles

* "Francis Garnier (1839–1873), Explorer of the Mekong River", ''Explorers of South-east Asia, Six Lives'', ed. Victor T. King, (Kuala Lumpur:

OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1995)
River at risk: the Mekong and the water politics of China and Southeast Asia

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Milton Australian historians Cornell University alumni Historians of Southeast Asia Living people Members of the Order of Australia University of Sydney alumni Year of birth missing (living people)