Sri Lanka in the Modern Age recounts the modern history of the island in an accessible yet unconventional manner. Where other histories have tended to focus on the state's failure to accommodate the needs and demands of minority communities, Wickramasinghe places their claims alongside the political, social and economic demands of other communities, parties, associations and groups, tracing their lineages to the colonial period. This paperback edition carries the book into the present, covering the brutal end of Sri Lanka's civil war and the making of the oppressive stability that has arisen in its wake.