Customer Reviews

Indonesia: Peoples and Histories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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

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.

This was a terrible book, one of the worst I have read in years. I would have quit, but it was all I had taken with me on my trip to Indonesia.

The problem is that Geller almost never presents an arc of history. There is very little cause and effect, or discussion of broad themes that explain the change over time in Indonesia. Geller is trying to tell the history of an enormous nation, covering several centuries. Given such scope, we need big picture thinking and discussion. Instead, we get isolated facts and events, with no analysis at all of how they effected the larger sweep of history. The book reads like a series of unrelated facts.

On top of it all, the prose is dry and uninteresting.

I bought this book on a recommendation from Lonely Planet. I should have known better. Avoid this awful book.

I purchased this book by chance (didn't have a history of Indonesia on my bookshelves, thought maybe I should) and I certainly didn't know much about Indonesia before reading it (my daughter majored in Southeast Asian Studies, but the closest I ever got was Singapore). So I certainly can't judge the author's research (but assume that Yale University Press wouldn't have published the book if it were not sound).
Speaking as a layperson, I LOVED this detailed, nuanced account of the peoples who eventually became Indonesians. Yes, the author's style is a bit cool and understated, so the book begins slowly, but the boxed "Capsules" and Taylor's balanced portrayal of ordinary people as well as elites creates a wonderful texture.
The four earlier reviews sometimes make legitimate points but can also be partisan. (Of course, in a broad history we all look for topics of particular interest to us -- Is there too little on Buddhism? On Islam? Too much? Was some ruler or writer or activist omitted? Since I "had no horse in this race" I found the balance just fine. No, actually, I enjoyed the fact that Taylor paid attention to Indonesian women.)
What I liked most about this work (the clue is in the title: Indonesia, Peoples and HistorIES) is the way in which Taylor explores parallel histories, competing accounts, and imaginary histories -- Javanese vs. Sumatran, Hindu vs. Muslim, Dutch vs. Asian, elite vs. village, Aceh vs. Ambonese, Chinese/Indonesians vs. Japanese, and many more. The result is a story of how history is created, as well as the creation of the nation of Indonesia.
What I liked least about this work is the totally inadequate provision of historical maps! Boo! Hiss!

Good introduction to history of Indonesia. Not much information on pre-Islamic period, but that is because records written on palm leaves (lontar) did not survive; not this author's fault. This book served me well as preparation for a trip to Bali.