A major work based on an incomparable first-person experience of a
stunningly wide range of critical events and major personalities. Friend seems to
have known everyone and been everywhere.
-- Clifford
Geertz
An engaging romp through the 54 years of
Indonesia's existence, its scope is a broad one. Part personal memoir, part history,
part economic treatise, it makes for a useful (and bang up-to-date) introduction to
the unknown archipelago, particularly valuable in light of the absence of much in
the way of competition.
-- The
Economist
Mr. Friend...succeeds in making Indonesia
comprehensible because he uses a wealth of contemporary Indonesian contacts to paint
a lively historical, sociological, anthropological and at times gossipy portrait of
the country...For those who know little about Indonesia and for those who know much,
this is a captivating rendition.
-- Jane Perlez New York
Times
For foreigners and Indonesians alike, Theodore
Friend's book is a rich informative source to better understand the country's
post-colonial history. This scholarly work has an engaging, often reflective
narrative style that is always full of details from numerous interviews conducted
since the writer first started visiting the country, sometime in
1967-1968.
-- Mohammad Sadli Jakarta
Post
This is an outstanding general history of
Indonesia over the four and a half decades since its troubled independence, won
after 300 years of Dutch colonial rule. But it is also a reliable, insightful guide
to the dynamics of current Indonesian politics, and the troubled but principled and
(so far) surprisingly robust presidency of Megawati Sukarnoputri...[Friend] enjoyed
exceptional access to the nation's key leaders during the dramatic transition to
democracy in 1998-2000. His consequent blending of scholarship and hands-on direct
experience informs every page of this book.
-- Martin Sieff Washington
Times
[Friend] combines scholarly analysis with
vivid personal recollections--of both important political players and ordinary
people. The result is a book of passionate engagement and first-rate
scholarship.
-- Michael J. Ybarra Wall Street
Journal
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim
country, is extraordinarily complex, and few books give so complete and vivid an
introduction as does this one. Friend, a masterly political scientist, economist,
and anthropologist and an insightful travelogue observer, has met most of the major
actors who have shaped Indonesia since its independence and is thus able to bring
them to life...[He leaves] the reader with an informed understanding of contemporary
developments in this important but distant country.
-- Foreign
Affairs
Indonesian Destinies
offers a sustained treatment of Indonesian history and society that rivals Adam
Schwartz's A Nation in Waiting as the most comprehensive overview
of political change in the country from independence to the present day. It is
appealingly modest in tone, simultaneously wideranging and attentive to detail, and
commendably generous towards other Indonesia specialists, especially junior
scholars. The book's historical narrative is peppered with regular digressions on
important topics and with personal anecdotes from Friend's research and travels in
Indonesia over many decades.
-- John Sidel Times Higher Education
Supplement
Theodore Friend, the former president of
Swarthmore College and a longtime observer of and participant in South-East Asian
affairs, [takes] a wide, historical view in his thoughtful and trustworthy account
of Indonesia from its creation out of the debris of a Dutch colonial past...Because
he seems to have read everything, been nearly everywhere and met just about
everyone, Friend proves himself to be a worthy guide through the hopes and tragedies
of Indonesia's first fifty-odd years.
-- Margaret Scott Times Literary
Supplement
Theodore Friend, a renowned scholar of
Southeast Asian countries, has written a balanced, fascinating, and richly
illustrated book about Indonesia. He records the views of presidents and generals,
but he also dwells 'on several individual Indonesians of no special prominence
because they illustrate ordinary lives with grace under pressure, and because I like
them.' The result of this combination of personal anecdote and scholarly expertise
is a kaleidoscopic view of the successes and failures of Indonesia: 'sometimes
rarified aromas; too often, bloody reek.
-- Vasuki Shastry Finance and
Development
Theodore Friend has written a most
engaging book about Indonesia, looking back over the first 50 years of Indonesian
history, profiling many of the people whom he met in the course of researching the
subject, and disarming the reader with frankly stated opinions about any number of
topics that come up along the way. This is like no other book on Indonesia, far more
scholarly than the snapshots of journalists and far more revealing of the author's
open personality than most dissertations by academics. It is a book to be savored by
readers who already know Indonesia well and to be read with profit by any who hope
to join their company. Friend is a genial guide
a consummate reporter
and
an indefatigable gatherer of the accounts of others
Friend writes with clarity
and wit.
-- John Bresnan Bulletin of Indonesian Economic
Studies
