Indonesia: Peoples and Histories [Paperback]

Jean Gelman Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0300105185 | ISBN-13: 978-0300105186

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, is now in the midst of dramatic upheaval. This history of Indonesia provides an overview from the prehistoric period to the present and explores the connections between the nation’s many communities and the differences that propel contemporary breakaway movements.
“Taylor’s approach challenges and opens the mind.”—Jaime James, Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Taylor’s new book is groundbreaking: it takes us on a grand journey from the earliest material cultures of the archipelago to Indonesia’s turbulent present.”—Laurie J. Sears, author of Shadows of Empire: Colonial Discourse and Javanese Tales
“Clear, erudite, and authoritative, this book provides a rich coverage of the vast tapestry of Indonesian society.”—Ben Kiernan, Yale University
“A rich and fascinating excursion into Indonesian history that is guided not only by the usual commanding authority of political events, but by the story of how different peoples, as communities, have interacted over the centuries to produce an Indonesia that, although diverse, can also be called a nation.”—Foreign Affairs

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clear, erudite, and authoritative, this book provides a rich coverage of the vast tapestry of Indonesian society."—Ben Kiernan, Yale University

“Jean Gelman Taylor has written an authoritative, accessible and interesting book that brings a new vividness to Indonesian history. She guides her readers on an absorbing journey through Indonesia’s complex past. Her original approach has produced a work that will engage the general reader, stimulate the student and challenge the specialist.”—Barbara Watson Andaya, University of Hawaii

About the Author

Jean Gelman Taylor is a senior lecturer in history at the University of New South Wales.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300105185
• ISBN-13: 978-0300105186
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > History > Asia > Indonesia

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky history for an eccentric nation, December 13, 2003

By 

Nicholas Dujmovic (Vienna, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indonesia: Peoples and Histories (Hardcover)

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in Indonesia. It is not a standard sort of history, but its value lies in how the author brilliantly weaves together strands of Indonesia's prehistory, colonial history, and history as an independent nation--it reminds one of Churchill's maxim about the Balkans, that the region has to be a net exporter of history because it produces too much for local consumption. This book also demonstrates why the Australians are absolutely first-rate in Indonesian studies (look at a map--they have to be). Another huge plus are the extremely valuable capsule histories scattered throughout--little gems that capture small topics deftly. My only criticism is about the author's writing style: hardly "voluptuous" as one reviewer put it (what does voluptuous writing look like?)--but in fact it's fairly inelegant; the list approach to making your points.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ignores Indonesia's past, December 20, 2007

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indonesia: Peoples and Histories (Paperback)

This book spends less than 60 pages describes the rich and diverse pre-Islamic past of Indonesia. The rest of the book treats Indonesia as if it has always been an Islamic state. But even into the late 19th century it was not a majority Muslim, until a series of ethnic-cleansing campaigns aimed at Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Chinese suceeded in making it so.

This book is basically a history of Islamic Indonesia and does'nt offer much to those interested in the great diversity of the country or of its rich and ancient history.

Seth J. Frantzman

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars GayBuddhistLawyer, February 20, 2006

By 

Robert C. La Mont "GayBuddhistLawyer" (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Indonesia: Peoples and Histories (Hardcover)

While this has a lot to recommend it, the author seems to be excessively politically correct. It would seem that she has no familiarity with mainstream economic analysis, but is perhaps overly familiar with Marxist economics. She seems to feel that value is only created by farmers/laborers and needs to remind of it. Her many boxed digressions are interesting, but the one on Hinduism and Buddhism is so strange, that it did make me question the validity of her work in areas I'm less familiar with. She says that the Dutch did not try to convert the Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist Indonesians because they regarded Asians as essentially different (inferentially a racist outlook). I would like to know her source for this, since the pragmatic observation that there were far too many of them and they were too attached to their religions to make forced conversion possible seems like a much more obvious reason for the decision.