Jean Gelman Taylor – författare

In the seventeenth century, the Dutch established a trading base at the Indonesian site of Jacarta. What began as a minor colonial outpost under the name Batavia would become, over the next three centuries, the flourishing economic and political nucleus of the Dutch Asian Empire. In this pioneering study, Jean Gelman Taylor offers a comprehensive analysis of Batavia's extraordinary social world - its marriage patterns, religious and social organizations, economic interests, and sexual roles. With an emphasis on the urban ruling elite, she argues that Europeans and Asians alike were profoundly altered by their merging, resulting in a distinctive hybrid, Indo-Dutch culture. Original in its focus on gender and use of varied sources - travelers' accounts, newspapers, legal codes, genealogical data, photograph albums, paintings, and ceramics - ""The Social World of Batavia"", first published in 1983, forged new paths in the study of colonial society. In this second edition, Gelman offers a new preface as well as an additional chapter tracing the development of these themes by a new generation of scholars.

Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world. It comprises more than 17,000 islands inhabited by 230 million people who speak over 300 different languages. Now the world’s largest Muslim nation, Indonesia remains extraordinarily heterogeneous due to the waves of immigration—Buddhist, Hindu, Arab, and European—that have defined the region’s history.Fifty years after the collapse of Dutch colonial rule, Indonesia is a nation in the midst of dramatic upheaval. In this broad survey, Jean Gelman Taylor explores the connections between the nation’s many communities, and the differences that propel contemporary breakaway movements.Drawing on a broad range of sources, including art, archaeology, and literature, Taylor provides a historical overview from the prehistoric period to the present day. The text is enlivened by brief “capsule” histories on topics ranging from pepper to Maharajas to smallpox.This ambitious book—the first new history of Indonesia written in over twenty years—will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Southeast Asia and the future stability of the region.

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.

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.