Indonesian Destinies - Brief Article - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Dec, 2003

Indonesian Destinies. Theodore Friend. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. [pounds sterling]23.50. 628 pages. ISBN 0-674-01137-6. In this survey Mr Friend seeks 'to convey to the lay reader an idea of "Indonesia" and what it has become in the first half century as a nation state'. The author begins with the revolt against Dutch rule after the Second World War and traces the vast country's development since then.

He inevitably concentrates on the roles of Sukarno and Suharto and mixes his history with his own personal reflections and experiences to make this a combined historical survey and partial travelogue. By including discussions of cultural and social topics he seeks to give Western readers a rounded picture of this extraordinary archipelago that is also a county of countries and, somewhat more alarming after September 11th, the world's largest Mohammedan nation. (Do the publishers really need to state that the book is published, as well as in Massachusetts, in 'London, England'?)