"Village Java Under the Cultivation System 1830-1870 is a pioneering attempt to understand and explain the transformations undergone by the peasants of Java under the system of forced crop cultivation imposed upon them by the Dutch colonial government. Based on extensive archival research in Indonesia and Holland, it paints a detailed portrait of Javanese village life in the early years of the nineteenth century and analyses the system of forced cultivations - from rapid expansion to stagnation and then decline. The last half of the book looks in detail at how peasant social and economic life in Java was affected by decades of forced labour. Village institutions, leadership and changing styles of land tenure, new social groups, changes in labour relations, domestic cropping and land use, the development of trade and industry, changes in living standards, population growth and mobility are all examined. In the course of his analysis, the author also comments upon the numerous controversies relating to peasant social change in Java in the recent past." "This book will be of value to all students of Indonesia's history, culture and development, as well as those interested in social and economic development in general. It provides a uniquely documented and expansive analysis of a crucial period of change in the history of modern Java."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This major study explores the spatial history of the Dutch East Indies as an imperial formation between the early nineteenth century and the end of empire. It consists of six in-depth case-studies on pertinent themes such as rural capitalism, indirect colonial rule, border politics, coolie circulations, un-modern nationalism and the beginning of Indonesian independence. These studies are set within a novel theory, which connects local, intra-imperial, transimperial and global history in the format of specific topochrones. As such this book is a contribution both to Indonesian transcultural history and the field of New Area Studies.

European markets almost exclusively relied on Caribbean sugar produced by slave labor until abolitionist campaigns began around 1800. Thereafter, importing Asian sugar and transferring plantation production to Asia became a serious option for the Western world. In this book, Ulbe Bosma details how the British and Dutch introduced the sugar plantation model in Asia and refashioned it over time. Although initial attempts by British planters in India failed, the Dutch colonial administration was far more successful in Java, where it introduced in 1830 a system of forced cultivation that tied local peasant production to industrial manufacturing. A century later, India adopted the Java model in combination with farmers' cooperatives rather than employing coercive measures. Cooperatives did not prevent industrial sugar production from exploiting small farmers and cane cutters, however, and Bosma finds that much of modern sugar production in Asia resembles the abuses of labor by the old plantation systems of the Caribbean.

With editors and contributors of outstanding academic reputation this exciting new book presents an unconventional and radical perspective, revealing that states do still matter.

Annotation Southeast Asian scholars may have special insights into their respective countries, but they are just as easily infected by political and didactic functions of their national histories as any historian. The editors (a professor and former professor with the School of Humanities, U. Sains Malaysia) present 15 papers in which Southeast Asian scholars turn a critical eye on their national historiographies. Five of the papers explore broad methodological issues, while others examine particular historiographic traditions from Burma (Myanmar), Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The final group consists of case studies of the application of new methodologies and understandings to particular historical events or periods. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing contains over 800 entries ranging from Lord Acton and Anna Comnena to Howard Zinn and from Herodotus to Simon Schama. Over 300 contributors from around the world have composed critical assessments of historians from the beginning of historical writing to the present day, including individuals from related disciplines like Jürgen Habermas and Clifford Geertz, whose theoretical contributions have informed historical debate. Additionally, the Encyclopedia includes some 200 essays treating the development of national, regional and topical historiographies, from the Ancient Near East to the history of sexuality. In addition to the Western tradition, it includes substantial assessments of African, Asian, and Latin American historians and debates on gender and subaltern studies.

In the 19th century, colonial rule brought the modern world closer to the Indonesian peoples, introducing mechanized transport, all-weather roads, postal and telegraph communications, and steamship networks that linked Indonesia's islands to each other, to Europe and the Middle East. This book looks at Indonesia's global importance, and traces the entwining of its peoples and economies with the wider world. The book discusses how products unique to Indonesia first slipped into regional trade networks and exposed scattered communities to the dynamic influence of far-off civilizations. It focuses on economic and cultural changes that resulted in the emergence of political units organized as oligarchies or monarchies, and goes on to look in detail at Indonesia's relationship with Holland's East Indies Company. The book analyses the attempts by politicians to negotiate ways of being modern but uniquely Indonesian, and considers the oscillations in Indonesia between movements for theocracy and democracy. It is a useful contribution for students and scholars of World History and Southeast Asian Studies.