A History of Modern Indonesia
ISBN: 9780511201318
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Cambridge University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: History;

Although Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world, its history is still relatively unfamiliar and understudied. Guided by the life and writings of the country's most famous author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Adrian Vickers takes the reader on a journey across the social and political landscape of twentieth-century Indonesia in this innovative and timely account. He begins by explaining the country's origins under the Dutch in the early part of that century, the subsequent anti-colonial struggle and revolution which led to independence in 1949. Thereafter the spotlight is on the 1950s, a crucial period in the formation of Indonesia as a new nation, which was followed by the Sukarno years, and the anti-communist massacres of the 1960s when General Suharto took over as president. The concluding chapters chart the fall of Suharto's New Order after thirty two years in power, and the subsequent political and religious turmoil which culminated in the Bali bombings in 2002. Drawing on insights from literature, art and anthropology, Adrian Vickers portrays a complex and resilient people borne out of a troubled past.

Adrian Vickers (born 1958) is an Australian writer and historian. He received his BA and PhD from the University of Sydney. He holds a personal chair in Southeast Asian Studies and is director of the Asian Studies Program at the University of Sydney. His first book was published in 1986, The Desiring Prince; A Study of the Kidung Malat. He and Julia Martinez are co-authors of The Pearl Frontier: Indonesian Labor and Indigenous Encounters in Australia's Northern Trading Network, the winner of the 2016 Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Book Award. and the winner of the 2016 Queensland Literary Award for History.

(Bowker Author Biography)


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