1. Nationalism and Asia; 2. Understanding Southeast Asian diversities; 3. Chinese as the Southeast Asian 'other'; 4. Malay (Melayu) and its descendants: multiple meanings of a porous category; 5. Aceh: memories of monarchy; 6. Sumatran Bataks: from statelessness to Indonesian diaspora; 7. Lateforming ethnie in Malaysia: Kadazan or Dusun; 8. Imperial alchemy - revolutionary dreams.
Using Southeast Asia as an example, this book tests theory about the relation between modernity, nationalism, and ethnic identity.
Anthony Reid is a Southeast Asian historian, currently again at the Australian National University after periods at the National University of Singapore (2002–7, where he was founding Director of the Asia Research Institute) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1999–2002, where he was Professor of History and first Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies). Previously, he worked at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University, Canberra (1970–99) and the University of Malaya (1965–70), and had visiting positions at Yale University (1973–4), the University of Auckland (1976), Oxford University (1987), Washington University, St Louis (1989), the University of Hawaii (1996), Cambridge University (2005) and the Social Science Research Training Center, Makassar, Indonesia (1980–1). He was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture prize in 2002, largely for Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680 (2 volumes, 1988–93). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society. His other books include The Contest for North Sumatra: Atjeh, the Netherlands and Britain, 1858–1898 (1969), The Indonesian National Revolution, 1945–1950 (1974), The Blood of the People: Revolution and the End of Traditional Rule in Northern Sumatra (1979), Charting the Shape of Early Modern Southeast Asia (1999), An Indonesian Frontier: Acehnese and Other Histories of Sumatra (2004) and To Nation by Revolution: Indonesia in the Twentieth Century (2011). He has also edited or co-edited over 20 books, including Essential Outsiders: Chinese and Jews in the Modern Transformation of Southeast Asia and Central Europe (1997), Asian Freedoms (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Verandah of Violence: The Historical Background of the Aceh Problem (2006) and Negotiating Asymmetry: China's Place in Asia (2009).
'Imperial Alchemy is a masterful historical account of how
homogenizing ideologies and structures of the modern state
transformed an already diverse set of identities into the current
myriad forms of nationalist and political identities. Using his
remarkable depth as one of the most respected historians of
Southeast Asia, Reid skillfully traces the evolution of diverse
political identities in various locations of the region, from their
colonial legacies to the modern day, without sacrificing the
richness of precision and detail. This book is a major contribution
to the study of nationalism and ethnic identity in Southeast Asia.'
Jacques Bertrand, University of Toronto
'Exceptionally stimulating, Imperial Alchemy integrates precolonial
and colonial history, mainland and island Southeast Asia, Southeast
Asia and the wider world to produce an entirely novel perspective
on Southeast Asia's diverse and idiosyncratic political identities.
This is an outstanding example of the originality and breadth of
vision everyone associates with Tony Reid.' Victor Lieberman, The
Marvin B. Becker Collegiate Professor of History and Professor of
Southeast Asian History, The University of Michigan
'How is it that the imperially-shaped states and borders of
Southeast Asia have shown such tenacious resilience in the face of
the bewildering ethnic variety of the region? Anthony Reid's
stylish, magisterial Imperial Alchemy explores how 'the base metal
of empire' was 'transmuted into the gold of nationhood'. Drawing on
a lifetime of close research into local histories of identity of
Southeast Asia, Reid combines probing theoretical reflection,
brilliant synthesis, and a command of the intricacies of regional
ethnicity as broad as it is unmatched to create an absorbing,
provocative account of the often troubled gestation and maturation
of the nation-state in Southeast Asia.' R. E. Elson, The University
of Queensland
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