A major work based on an incomparable first-person experience of a stunningly wide range of critical events and major personalities. Friend seems to have known everyone and been everywhere. (Clifford Geertz)
An engaging romp through the 54 years of Indonesia's existence, its scope is a broad one. Part personal memoir, part history, part economic treatise, it makes for a useful (and bang up-to-date) introduction to the unknown archipelago, particularly valuable in light of the absence of much in the way of competition. (The Economist 2003-05-31)
Mr. Friend...succeeds in making Indonesia comprehensible because he uses a wealth of contemporary Indonesian contacts to paint a lively historical, sociological, anthropological and at times gossipy portrait of the country...For those who know little about Indonesia and for those who know much, this is a captivating rendition. (Jane Perlez New York Times 2003-11-08)
For foreigners and Indonesians alike, Theodore Friend's book is a rich informative source to better understand the country's post-colonial history. This scholarly work has an engaging, often reflective narrative style that is always full of details from numerous interviews conducted since the writer first started visiting the country, sometime in 1967-1968. (Mohammad Sadli Jakarta Post 2004-01-11)
This is an outstanding general history of Indonesia over the four and a half decades since its troubled independence, won after 300 years of Dutch colonial rule. But it is also a reliable, insightful guide to the dynamics of current Indonesian politics, and the troubled but principled and (so far) surprisingly robust presidency of Megawati Sukarnoputri...[Friend] enjoyed exceptional access to the nation's key leaders during the dramatic transition to democracy in 1998-2000. His consequent blending of scholarship and hands-on direct experience informs every page of this book. (Martin Sieff Washington Times 2004-01-04)
[Friend] combines scholarly analysis with vivid personal recollections--of both important political players and ordinary people. The result is a book of passionate engagement and first-rate scholarship. (Michael J. Ybarra Wall Street Journal 2004-03-11)
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, is extraordinarily complex, and few books give so complete and vivid an introduction as does this one. Friend, a masterly political scientist, economist, and anthropologist and an insightful travelogue observer, has met most of the major actors who have shaped Indonesia since its independence and is thus able to bring them to life...[He leaves] the reader with an informed understanding of contemporary developments in this important but distant country. (Foreign Affairs 2004-03-01)
Indonesian Destinies offers a sustained treatment of Indonesian history and society that rivals Adam Schwartz's A Nation in Waiting as the most comprehensive overview of political change in the country from independence to the present day. It is appealingly modest in tone, simultaneously wideranging and attentive to detail, and commendably generous towards other Indonesia specialists, especially junior scholars. The book's historical narrative is peppered with regular digressions on important topics and with personal anecdotes from Friend's research and travels in Indonesia over many decades. (John Sidel Times Higher Education Supplement 2004-05-21)
Theodore Friend, the former president of Swarthmore College and a longtime observer of and participant in South-East Asian affairs, [takes] a wide, historical view in his thoughtful and trustworthy account of Indonesia from its creation out of the debris of a Dutch colonial past...Because he seems to have read everything, been nearly everywhere and met just about everyone, Friend proves himself to be a worthy guide through the hopes and tragedies of Indonesia's first fifty-odd years. (Margaret Scott Times Literary Supplement 2004-06-11)
Theodore Friend, a renowned scholar of Southeast Asian countries, has written a balanced, fascinating, and richly illustrated book about Indonesia. He records the views of presidents and generals, but he also dwells 'on several individual Indonesians of no special prominence because they illustrate ordinary lives with grace under pressure, and because I like them.' The result of this combination of personal anecdote and scholarly expertise is a kaleidoscopic view of the successes and failures of Indonesia: 'sometimes rarified aromas; too often, bloody reek. (Vasuki Shastry Finance and Development 2004-06-01)
Theodore Friend has written a most engaging book about Indonesia, looking back over the first 50 years of Indonesian history, profiling many of the people whom he met in the course of researching the subject, and disarming the reader with frankly stated opinions about any number of topics that come up along the way. This is like no other book on Indonesia, far more scholarly than the snapshots of journalists and far more revealing of the author's open personality than most dissertations by academics. It is a book to be savored by readers who already know Indonesia well and to be read with profit by any who hope to join their company. Friend is a genial guide…a consummate reporter…and an indefatigable gatherer of the accounts of others…Friend writes with clarity and wit. (John Bresnan Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies)
