“This is a powerful, well-researched history of Singapore that will be invaluable to scholars and ordinary citizens alike. For those of us aspiring activists, hoping for a more democratic and just Singapore, the work is both inspiring and cautionary in the ‘post-knuckle duster’ era. Dr Poh describes the release of the ISA detainees as ‘accompanied by the endeavour to imprison us within a narrative in which we were villains who had been defeated’. Books like this are essential to the process of the freeing of the Singaporean mind that is only just beginning." – Paul Ananth Tambyah, Professor of Medicine and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in the 2015 General Election
“I think we do have a breakthrough here. This is probably the first time that an account of Singapore’s history in the 1950s and 1960s is pieced together outside of The Singapore Story logic. It will be something that the authorities, scholars and Singaporeans in general must reckon with.” – Sai Siew Min, Singaporean historian