Indonesia

In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos
$14.00
Compelling reading, albeit it quite unpleasant at times. If you're squeamish, be warned.

Parry paints vivid vignettes from various bloody moments in Indonesia's recent history, wearing his heart on his sleeve. This is not a sober, detached analysis of events - it is a first hand account of what these moments looked like on the ground.

Unique and invaluable, and well-written.

Indonesia: Peoples and Histories
$24.00
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

A History of Modern Indonesia
$29.99
1. History is best told when it isn't a litany of dates and places and names.

2. History is better told when it attempts to describe the zeitgeist of the era, when it makes a time and place alive for you.

3. Vickers accomplishes this in describing the history of modern Indonesia, from the late colonial period to the present day. He includes the important dates, but takes special care to note the discourses and debates that shaped the events, and the daily lives of the poor and the rich and those struggling to hold their place in between.

4. I read this book for my research, but found it so compelling that I began to read it for pleasure, a rare turn.

5. Vickers makes sense of the complex and often covert history of Indonesia, which has experienced several volatile changes in the 20th century.

5. The radical shifts in leadership, ideology and policy - from colonialism to Sukarno's near-communism to the still-unsolved coup that confirmed Suharto's dictatorial technocracy, to the protests that overthrew him and invited a string of presidents in the last nine years - are illustrated by how it affected peoples' lives.

6. This is a history that takes into account the effect of political climate on art, literature, film and other manifestations of culture. It notes these arenas as both evidence for the contemporary mindset and as catalysts for change.

7. Vickers uses the voices of Presidents, the voices of laborers, and the voices of everyone in between to bring to life more than one hundred years of history.

8. Whereas other histories treat the cultural sphere and lived lives as separate matters, as anecdotes, as separate chapters, or not at all, Vickers' work is infused with these voices and cultures.

9. In addition, it offers the known history and biographies of important people who helped shape it.

10. One of the best books on Indonesian history that I've read, A History of Modern Indonesia is recommended to the scholarly as well as the curious for a comprehensive and compelling look at the recent history of the fourth largest country in the world.

Indonesia - Culture Smart!
$9.95
A good reference overall that packs a lot of information in a small volume. While history is an important factor in understanding culture, too many pages were spent on it, and in some cases, seemed repetitive. It is a good primer reference, a handy travel ready reference, or good refresher. I recommend it for business travelers.