This book presents a comprehensive re-telling of the history of Singapore from local perspective. The authors argues that the history of Singapore started five hundred years earlier before the arrival of Stamford Raffles. The book fills in the gaps of much of Singapore's history from pre-Raffles past to ancient Temasek to the 19th century and then traces the transformation of the nation from port-city to city-state and to nation-state plugged into regional and international trends.