Telling Lives, Telling History

By Muhamad Radjab, P. Pospos, Susan Rodgers

Book Overview

These two memoirs, superbly rendered into English for the first time, provide unique windows into the Sumatran past, in particular, and the early twentieth-century history of Southeast Asia, in general. Originally published soon after the Indonesian Revolution (1945-1949) liberated the island chain from Dutch control, these unusually insightful narratives recall the authors' boyhoods in rural Toba Batak and Minangkabau villages. In reconstructing their own passage into adulthood, the writers inevitably tell the story of their country's turbulent journey from colonial subjugation through revolution to independence. Susan Rodgers's perceptive introduction illuminates the importance of autobiography in developing historical consciousness and imagining a national future.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520085477
• ISBN13: 9780520085473
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

great 1950 autobiographies and introduction to Indonesia

I teach about Indonesia and this book is the best classroom introduction to modern Indonesian history and 20th century Islam in Sumatra. I use the Radjab text. Written in 1950 the autobiography covers the 1910s and '20s -- a time of "pergerakan" politics in Minangkabau West Sumatra. But in '50 Indonesia was newly independent and Radjab is reworking the Indonesian past to fit with Merdeka. Anyway, it's a great teaching resource and if it ever goes out of print then I'm in trouble.