ABSTRACT
The introduction offers a brief preview of the book’s contents, summarizing the subsequent chapters and advancing three main arguments about the barter economy in the Khmer Rouge labor camps. First, the underground exchanges in Democratic Kampuchea provided food and medicine for desperate people subsisting under a totalitarian regime, saving the lives of thousands. Second, bartering was the riskiest way to obtain food in the camps because it was dependent on the discretion of two or more individuals under the constant threat of violent punishment. Finally, despite the regime’s extreme efforts to eliminate private property and change human behavior, basic forms of market capitalism and the demand for superfluous goods persisted in labor camps throughout Democratic Kampuchea. The introduction also discusses primary sources, methodology, and the historiography of the barter economy in Cambodia, engaging with the works of James Tyner, Ben Kiernan, David Chandler, and Steve Heder.
