In this edition, Merle Ricklefs poses the question of how diverse but related linguistic and ethnic communities came to form the unitary Republic of Indonesia, and sheds important light on the crises and challenges facing this vast nation.

This fourth edition of M. C. Ricklefs' classic work on the history of Indonesia reflects the fruits of the latest research and brings the story up to the present day. In a single volume, readers gain an insight into the complexities of the world's largest archipelago - a land of vibrant cultures and dynamic history, but also one of violence, oppressive governments and immense challenges.

Although Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world, its history is still relatively unknown. Adrian Vickers takes the reader on a journey across the social and political landscape of modern Indonesia, starting with the country's origins under the Dutch in the early twentieth-century, and the subsequent anti-colonial revolution which led to independence in 1949. Thereafter the spotlight is on the 1950s, a crucial period in the formation of Indonesia as a new nation, followed by the Sukarno years, and the anti-Communist massacres of the 1960s when General Suharto took over as president. The concluding chapters chart the fall of Suharto's New Order after thirty two years in power, and the subsequent political and religious turmoil which culminated in the Bali bombings in 2002. Adrian Vickers is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Wollongong. He has previously worked at the Universities of New South Wales and Sydney, and has been a visiting fellow at the University of Indonesia and Udayana University (Bali). Vickers has more than twenty-five years research experience in Indonesia and the Netherlands, and has travelled in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Europe in the course of his research. He is author of the acclaimed Bali: a Paradise Created (Penguin, 1989) as well as many other scholarly and popular works on Indonesia. In 2003 Adrian Vickers curated the exhibition Crossing Boundaries, a major survey of modern Indonesian art, and has also been involved in documentary films, including Done Bali (Negara Film and Television Productions, 1993).

Counter In this second edition, all parts of the book have been revised and sections added wherever new research has required this, greater attention has been given to economic issues, and two new chapters have been written on the period since 1965. The bibliography has been brought completely up to date. Indonesia is the forth most populous nation of the earth and a major producer of oil and other resources. It is also the most populous nation of the Islamic world and at the same time heir to vigorous pre-Islamic traditions and complex cultural heritages of the many islands which make up the Republic. Its colourful history, from the coming of Islam c. 1300 to the present day, is described in this comprehensive work. The emphasis throughout the book is on the history of the Indonesian peoples themselves. An essential narrative of political history is provided as well as discussions of social, cultural and economic affairs. Chapter bibliographies are included to guide readers to the most recent scholarly works on the subject. Behind this structure, the book poses the important question of how the diverse but related linguistic and ethnic communities of the Indonesian archipelago became a unified nation. Attention is therefore given first to those influences which set the scene for the post-1300 era of Indonesian history: the spread of Islam; early European contact; the emergence of the new Indonesian states and the variety of indigenous cultural, literary and religious traditions. The turbulent seventeenth century and eighteenth centuries are then analysed in terms of the largely inconclusive struggles for hegemony among Indonesian states and the Dutch. The nineteenth century saw Dutch colonial rule gradually imposed throughout the archipelago, and the twentieth century opened with quite new issues which were by now common to most of the peoples of Indonesia. Islamic revivalism and anti-colonial movements further helped to draw Indonesia together, a process which culminated in the revolution and independence. Since then, Indonesia's unification has made many achievements possible, but has not prevented the emergence of persistence of serious problems. Without political or religious bias, using both western and Indonesian sources, this history assists the serious study of both the past and the present of this beautiful and important Southeast Asian nation.