Ideology, memory and heritage significance -- Thang Long, the ascending dragon: pre-colonial Hanoi and the Chinese imprint -- Hanoi: building a capital for French Indochina -- Japanese interlude: Vietnamese resistance, French collaboration and collapse -- Under American bombs: Hanoi during the Vietnam War -- Red River, red city: creating Hanoi's socialist face -- Doi moi and the return of capitalism: Hanoi in the 1990s -- Creeping pluralism: Hanoi faces the new millennium