Table of Contents

1. The origins of the idea of Indonesia; 2. The new idea: elaboration and contestation; 3. The construction of Indonesia; 4. Indonesia in practice; 5. Rediscovering Indonesia; 6. Integralist Indonesia; 7. Towards a modest Indonesia; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Promotional Information

Traces the development of the idea of Indonesia from its origins to the present.

About the Author

R. E. Elson is Professor of Southeast Asian History at the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, The University of Queensland, Australia. He has written extensively on the modern history of Indonesia and Southeast Asia and his previous publications include Suharto: A Political Biography (2002) and The End of Peasantry in Southeast Asia: A Social and Economic History of Peasant Livelihood, 1800-1990s (1997).

Reviews

'This is a formidable piece of scholarship ... Elson gives us chapter and verse on, particularly, the early intellectual history of the 'idea of Indonesia', and yet manages to make his detailed scholarly account accessible to the general reader and those with expertise in other world regions. ... Elson's impressive base is the one from which any new discourse must begin.' William H. Frederick, Ohio University