Literature study on Singapore Essay Example For Students

Literature study on Singapore Essay Since the founding of Singapore, many works, articles and books have been published, providing a variety of information into the history of Singapore. When reviewing whether the three sources of articles chosen are useful to the research of Singapore history, some parameters and definitions should be set. The term scholar in my definition, will refer to any person who is doing a research into the history of Singapore at a higher level. This will include history students at the university levels, historians and professors, etc. By setting the scope in which the term scholar refers to, it is easier to review whether the specific piece of article that is under review could be considered as being useful. The following article, Singapore: History is an internet article. The article, which is published on the internet, comes from the book Singapore 1994. The book itself is provided by the Embassy of Singapore in Washington D.C. Judging from the origins of the article; it could be argued that there is a certain level of accuracy in terms of its recounting of the Singapore history. However, although the information stated in the article is of high accuracy in terms of the dates, factual information and chronological narration of Singapores major events, the origins of the article, date of publication and its author is unknown. This could put the credibility of the source in doubt. This is especially so when a student who has completely no background knowledge of Singapores history. The student might have some difficulty in accessing its accuracy since the article did not have any author or origins to refer to. For an academic scholar researching on the history of Singapore, he would definitely have no problem in accessing the accuracy of the source, since he has a prior knowledge of the facts and information. However, as the article is too general, it would not have been of much help to the scholar in his scholarly research on Singapore. The article would be more useful to students who are doing some study into Singapores history and have enough knowledge to conclude that the article is of certain level of accuracy. The article however does provide a comprehensive, short and simple narration of the history of Singapore since her founding by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819, up till 1990 when the second prime minister, Goh Chok Tong took over the office from Lee Kuan Yew. The article stops in 1990 as it believes that a new chapter of Singapores modern history had begun with Prime Minister Goh taking over. Hence, although it has not been mentioned when this article was written, one could make a guess that it could have been written when Prime Minister Goh had just taken over the office from Lee Kuan Yew. The kind of history written in this article could be argued to be the official kind of history which the government would want the nation to believe in, that the history of modern Singapore began in 1819 with Sir Stamford Raffles landing at the mouth of the Singapore River. The article does not provide much opportunity for any forms of intellectual discussion or questioning of the developments of the Singapore history as it is too brief and simplistic. There is no major in-depth discussion of intellectual content with regards to the developments of Singapore as compared to the other two articles under review. Scholars who wished to conduct an intellectual and in depth research on Singapores history would not find this article of any use to them. Many details have been omitted from this article. The developments of Singapore since its founding up till the 1990s are each given only a short general description. Furthermore, the article stops at 1990 and hence it would not be very useful for readers who are looking at the period beyond 1990. As such, the article is definitely not sufficient and adequate for use as a piece of scholarly material for the present-day state-of -the-art of scholarship on Singapore history. Instead, this article is more useful to serve as a basic foundation to readers who are keen to have a basic idea of the general history of Singapore. The article is useful for perhaps ones leisure reading into the history of Singapore, up till 1990. The Poetr of Wilfred Owen (Speech) EssayThe third article under review is the book written by another historian, C.M. Turnbull. The title of the book, The Straits Settlements 1826-67 Indian Presidency to Crown Colony traced the development of the Straits society as a whole, viewed not from London nor from Calcutta, but from the settlements themselves, and particularly from the capital in Singapore4. This article touched more upon the specific developments of the Singapore, tracing its beginnings from 1826 when Singapore became part of the Straits Settlement, until 1867. Issues such as the structure of the government, society, economy, social conditions, and external defense are being discussed in greater details. The specific time period and region of discussion allow for such a greater in depth research. The chapters provide an elaborate and detailed write-up about the islands developments in the areas of social, economic and political spheres. This book could be considered as a valuable source for the scholarly research on Singapores history as it went into details of the various problems, developments and contributions of the early settlers on the island. For example, Tan Tock Seng was mentioned to be the wealthy merchant who contributed $7000 to build a hospital for the diseased paupers5 It is also more focused with concentration on that of colonial government and developments of Singapore. It would definitely be of great help to scholars who are researching on the early life and developments of the Straits Settlements. It could be used as an academic piece of work for students at the university level. The information provided in the book is no doubt of a high level of accuracy. Every fact or statistical value that is being mentioned in the book by Turnbull has also been substantiated through the footnotes, ensuring scholars of its credibility and origins of information. It really aids in providing scholars with more areas to look into should he be interested in further research into a particular point that has been mentioned. All three sources mentioned about the developments of Singapore from the founding years in 1819 up till a certain period. The first article stopped at 1990 when Goh Chok Tong became the second Prime Minister. One could conclude that there are some tendencies for the first article to lean towards the political history of Singapore. The second book under review looks at the history of modern Malaysia and Singapore, providing more details. The last book narrows down the area of discussion further to that of just the Straits Settlement from 1826-67, which allows for even more in-depth content and knowledge. All three sources serve different purposes and hence it would not be possible to conclude which article is the most useful. However, if we were to go by the parameters set out in the introduction of this essay and define a scholar as a history student at the university level doing a scholarly research on the history of Singapore, the third source would definitely be the most useful one whereas the second book could serve as an introduction to the student.