In the first major work on Indonesian historiography to have appeared in any language, twenty-two outstanding scholars survey available source materials in Asia and Europe and discuss the current state of Indonesian historical scholarship, the approaches and methods that might be fruitful for future research, and the problems that confront Indonesian historians today. The contributions which can be made to historical studies by other disciplines - such as economics, sociology, anthropology, and international law - are discussed by specialists in these fields. Problems of Indonesian historiography are presented not only from points of view of the diff erent social sciences, but also from those of historians who differ in approach and interpretation from one another. This unique work, now brought back to life in Equinox Publishing's Classic Indonesia series, proves to be great value to historians and social scientists as an introduction to both sources for and diff erent approaches to the history of an important part of the world. Edited by one of Indonesia's leading scholars, Soedjatmoko, as well as Mohamad Ali, G.J. Resnik and George McT. Kahin, An Introduction to Indonesian Historiography features contributions from John Bastin, C.C. Berg, Buchari, J.C. Bottoms, C.R. Boxer, L. Ch. Damais, Hoesein Djajadiningrat, H.J. de Graf, Graham Irwan, Koichi Kishi, Koentjaraningrat, Ruth T. McVey, J. Noorduyn, J.M. Romein, R. Soekmono, Tjan Tjoe Som, F.J.E. Tan, W.F. Wertheim and P.J. Zoetmulder.

Angela Ki Che Leung's meticulous study begins with the classical annals of the imperial era, which contain the first descriptions of a feared and stigmatized disorder modern researchers now identify as leprosy. She then tracks the relationship between the disease and China's social and political spheres (theories of contagion prompted community and statewide efforts at segregation); religious traditions (Buddhism and Daoism ascribed redemptive meaning to those suffering from the disease), and evolving medical discourse (Chinese doctors have contested the disease's etiology for centuries). Leprosy even pops up in Chinese folklore, attributing the spread of the contagion to contact with immoral women. Leung next places the history of leprosy into a global context of colonialism, racial politics, and "imperial danger." A perceived global pandemic in the late nineteenth century seemed to confirm Westerners' fears that Chinese immigration threatened public health. Therefore battling to contain, if not eliminate, the disease became a central mission of the modernizing, state-building projects of the late Qing empire, the nationalist government of the first half of the twentieth century, and the People's Republic of China. Stamping out the curse of leprosy was the first step toward achieving "hygienic modernity" and erasing the cultural and economic backwardness associated with the disease. Leung's final move connects China's experience with leprosy to a larger history of public health and biomedical regimes of power, exploring the cultural and political implications of China's Sino-Western approach to the disease.