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Revolusi
- Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World
- Narrated by: Neil Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
A story of staggering scope and drama, Revolusi is the masterful and definitive account of the epic revolution that sparked the decolonisation of the modern world.
On a sunny Friday morning in August 1945, a handful of tired people raised a homemade cotton flag and on behalf of 68 million compatriots announced the birth of a new nation. With the fourth largest population in the world, inhabiting islands that span an eighth of the globe, Indonesia became the first colonised country to declare its independence after the Second World War.
Four million civilians had died during the wartime occupation by the Japanese that ousted the Dutch colonial regime. Another 200,000 people would lose their lives in the astonishingly brutal conflict that ensued - as the Dutch used savage violence to reassert their control, and as Britain and America became embroiled in pacifying Indonesia's guerrilla war of resistance: the 'Revolusi'. It was not until December 1949 that the newly created United Nations convinced the Netherlands to cede all sovereignty to Indonesia, finally ending 350 years of colonial rule and setting a precedent that would reshape the world.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews and eye-witness testimonies, David Van Reybrouck turns this vast and complex story into an utterly gripping narrative that is alive with human detail at every turn. A landmark publication, Revolusi shows Indonesia's struggle for independence to be one of the defining dramas of the twentieth century and establishes its author as one of the most gifted narrative historians at work in any language today.
'A wonderful and important book' PETER FRANKOPAN
'A masterly display of the historian’s craft' J M COETZEE
'A magnificent fusion of oral history, sparkling analysis, and historical wisdom. Revolusi has it all: a masterpiece' SEBASTIAN MALLABY
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- Jonnydee
- 29-03-24
A triumph
I was fascinated, enthralled, horrified, excited, entertained and amused. A masterpiece which comprehensively brings to life this remote part of the world which is rarely talked about these days but which has such significance. From my life I recall the stamps in my childhood collection picturing serious Asian men with impressive head gear, I hear my father ranting angrily about Nasser and Suez. I try to resolve my impression of the gentle Dutch people one usually meets on holiday with the scary soldiers of the colonial era. But not much more than these. Except I now know and understand so much more due to this wonderful book and its vast cast of interviewees. Thank you.
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