Indonesia: A Country Study (1992), edited by William H. Frederick and Robert L. Worden, provides a handy introduction to Indonesian history, society, geography, economy, and politics. It should be available in many libraries and it also can be accessed by Internet (Http://lcweb2.loc. gov/frd/cs/idtoc. html).
Those interested in a short introduction to Indonesia for general readers can find one in Indonesia: Land Under the Rainbow (1990), by Mochtar Lubis. Another general introduction, written specifically for younger readers, is Sylvia McNair's Indonesia: Enchantment of the World (1993). The third edition of A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1200 (2002), by M. C. Rickels, is strongly recommended to those looking for a good historical background on this country. This is one of the standard works on the history of Indonesia, and this edition has been revised and updated to include findings of recent research.
Indonesia's greatest modern writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, tells the story of the origins of Indonesian nationalism in a series of novels known as The Buru Quartet that follow the life of a young Indonesian intellectual in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These novels, This Earth of Mankind (1991), Child of All Nations (1990), Footsteps (1990), and House of Glass (1992), are all available in English with informative introductions by translator Max Lane.
Books on the political history of Indonesia tend to be fairly scholarly in character. John D. Legge's Sukarno: A Political Biography (1972) examines the Sukarno era. Politics during the Suharto period are covered in Indonesian Politics Under Suharto: Order, Development, and Pressure for Change (1994), by R. J. Vatiokiotis. Indonesia in Transition: Social Aspects of Reformasi and Crisis (2000), edited by Chris Manning and Pieter van Diemen, is a collection of articles on the changing political and social setting of Indonesia. Civil Islam (2000), by Robert W. Hefner, looks at the role of Islam in Indonesian political history. Hefner argues against stereotypes of Islam as inherently antidemocratic and argues that the Indonesian Islamic reform movement that led to the 1999 election of Abdurrahman Wahid actively promoted democratic ideals. Made in Indonesia: Indonesian Workers Since Suharto (2001), by Dan La Botz, uses interviews with labor activists in Indonesia to analyze the political role of the labor movement from a left-wing perspective.
The conflict in East Timor has received a great deal of attention. East Timor: Genocide in Paradise (The Real Story) (1996), by Matthew Jardine and Noam Chomsky, is highly critical of Indonesia's policies toward East Timor and of the United States for supporting Indonesia. East Timor at the Crossroads: The Forging of a Nation (1995), edited by Peter G. Carey and G. Carter Bentley, is a collection of essays on Timorese nationalism, with contributions by western scholars and Timorese activists. Peacekeeping in East Timor: The Path to Independence (2002), by Michael G. Smith, Moreen Dee, and Louisa May Alcott, is recommended for those interested in the period between the East Timorese vote for independence and its final separation from Indonesia.
Less has been written about the conflict in Irian Jaya, but an introduction to the events there is provided in Indonesia's Secret War: The Guerrilla Struggle in Irian Jaya (1985), by Robin Osborne.
Information on Indonesia on the Internet may be found at the Indonesia Homepage, Http://indonesia. elga. net. id. There is also an Indonesian Information site at Http://sunsite. nus. sg/ SEAlinks/indonesia-info. html, which provides numerous links to other sites that deal with Indonesia. An interview with President Megawati from the Asian edition of Time magazine may be found at Http://www. time. com/time/asia/news/interviewith: 0,9754,169338,00.html. This same site also contains a link to an essay critical of Megawati by Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer and a link to a report on the end of ex-president Abdurrahman Wahid's time in office.
World History
