Indonesia Book Review

Nowadays, Indonesia is different from the other countries because it is considered as a nation-state with approximately 17, 508 islands. Then, it is a bit confusing to know how and when the idea of Indonesia comes out with the complex of its varieties of religion, geographical and diversity ethnic. So, it is meaningful and interesting to understand the process and factors of “making Indonesia”.

Then, I find a book “The Idea of Indonesia: A History”, which is written by R. E. Elson, is published by Cambridge University Press in 2008. The book is about the background of Indonesia integration, to explain the development how the concept of Indonesia frames and lastly it becomes as both state and nation. For the author, R. E. Elson is an Australian historian, author, professor and has taught at the University of Queensland. He has written largely books about the modern history of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, the publications like “Suharto: A Political Biography (2001)”. Moreover, he has even been regarded as an authority on Southeast Asian History. Elson writes this book because there are many Indonesians

The book is separated in seven chapters and is the first and scholarly analysis the outcome and process of the idea of Indonesia through important phases of history, including the colonial era, Japanese invasion, 1950s rebellions of Islamic, Sukarno’s regime and “Guided democracy”. The book is faithfully chronological starting with the pre-revolutionary period to the modern Indonesia, also has collected numerous archival and documents from libraries, like the interview with varieties of Indonesians. It is clear to show when the term of “Indonesia” appears and how it is affected by the development of political, economic and society. After analyzing the history objectively, he finally makes a conclusion and his judgments towards the idea in moral terms and with an expression of