Malays

Anthony Milner is Basham Professor of Asian History at the Australian National University, and was Visiting Professor at The Research Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (Tokyo) in 2007. He has also held appointments as Raffles Visiting Professor of History at the National University of Singapore and Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. His writings on 'the Malays' include The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya (1995, 2002), and Kerajaan: Malay Political Culture on the Eve of Colonial Rule (1982). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

"The Malays - a volume in Wiley-Blackwell's series ‘The peoples of South-East Asia and the Pacific' - is an absorbing read, clearly written not only for those already interested in the cultural dynamics of the island world of Southeast Asia, but also for everyone who is interested in knowing how to successfully fail in defining a particular race, people or ethnicity." (Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 1 February 2011) "When all is said and done, readers will have learned a great deal about what it is to be Malay... A thoughtful... book."  (CHOICE, December 2009)"This study of a complex, elusive, and always changing essence of Malay civilisation draws on and reviews a large existing literature and adds an original and thought-provoking analysis to it. It is a work of great scholarship that is also absorbing reading." (Asian Affairs, March 2010)"Milner's book is thorough and well researched. Indeed, it is a 'must read' for any student and/or practitioner of Malaysian history and politics." (The Star, August 2009)"The book offers a fresh insight into the construction of group identities, the history of the Malay civilization and possible future of the Malay ethnicity." (Kansas City infoZine, March 2009)"The Malays, confronts the bewildering diversity and contradictions of the Malay identity, ethnicity and consciousness. The book seeks to provide a provocative case study of the Malay people and to explore the idea of 'Malayness.'" (PR Inside, March 2009)

• List of Figures. List of Maps.Preface and Acknowledgements.Note about the Author.1. Thinking about ‘the Malays’ and ‘Malayness’.2. Early Histories: Engaging India and Islam.3. The Sultanates.4. A ‘Malay’ or Kerajaan World?5. Experiencing Colonialism, and the Making of the Bangsa Melayu .6. Building ‘Malays’ into Nation States.7. Multiple Forms of ‘Malayness’8. Ethnicity, Civilization and the Fear of ‘Disappearing from this World’.Bibliography.Index.