Customer Reviews

Shadow of a Revolution - Indonesia and the Generals

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As the son of the author of this important record, I can vouch for its basis in historical experience. Written by the BBC South-East Asia correspondent in the Sixties, this book is based on the lived experience of one of the relatively few westerners - in the media, in business, diplomats, and security individuals - who actually lived through the events in Indonesia of those times. This is not an academic analysis, replete with multiple footnotes, but the memoir of a witness to real events. As such, it is a book which is already acknowledged by many experts as one of the basic source journals on the subject. If you are looking for information, rather than an ideological apology for the tragic recent history of Indonesia, read this book.

As a student of Indonesia, I picked this book up hoping it might shed some light on political events in Indonesia's New Order. Unfortunately, the book is an unsupported diatribe against the New Order and US foreign policy in SE Asia.

It is not that these things are without need to be critically examined, but this book never supports its claims...there is not a single footnote in the whole book.

Readers who like Noam Chomsky may find its narrative interesting and not mind the lack of support, but serious students will find the book lacking.