Indonesia: Peoples and Histories by Jean Gelman TaylorReview by: Lucian W. PyeForeign Affairs, Vol. 82, No. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 2003), p. 189Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20033738 .

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Recent Books

India's economic liberalization, and tensions with Pakistan. Stephen Cohen takes on the troublesome but persistent

Kashmir problem. John Garver explores the asymmetrical perceptions of threat that plague India-China relations. It becomes clear that India is still paying for its costly commitment to the losing side in the Cold

War. The war on terrorism since Septem ber u, 2001, has helped give India a slightly stronger voice internationally. But years of naive belief in their own rhetoric about being the leader of a significant Non aligned Movement has left Indian leaders unsure of how to present themselves internationally or even as a regional power in South Asia. The rise of a mindless form of Hindu nationalism further mud dies the waters. Although most of the authors are cautiously optimistic, this useful set of essays illuminates the obstacles that get in the way of India's playing a larger international role.

Indonesia: Peoples and Histories. BY JEAN GELMAN TAYLOR. New Haven: Yale

University Press, 2003, 544 pp. $39.95. This is a rich and fascinating excursion into Indonesian history that is guided not by the usual commanding authority of political events, but by the story of how different peoples, as communities, have interacted over the centuries to pro duce an Indonesia that, although diverse, can also be called a nation. The focus is on social, economic, and religious develop

ments, with the social aspect including court life from ancient times through

Dutch rule and the dominant figures of post-independence Indonesia. Taylor is able to cram all sorts of nuggets of Indone sian lore and theoretical insights into her book through the use of nearly a hundred

"capsules"-sets of brief paragraphs set off from the text by frames. The capsules range from such historical puzzles as why the Javanese population mushroomed so early, before the advent of the standard twentieth-century causes of population growth, to how "Indianization" took place in different parts of Indonesia, from the spread of Islam and the evolution of caliphs and sultans, and to many, many

more esoteric matters that deserve to be more than just footnotes. Taylor is clearly a sympathetic and enthusiastic scholar of all things Indonesian, but she is fair-minded and does not hold back on presenting the dark side of some phases of Indonesian history.

A Land on Fire: The Environmental Consequences ofthe SoutheastAsian Boom. BY JAMES DAVID FAHN. Boulder:

Westview Press, 2003, 384 pp. $27.50. In sharp contrast to the usual blend of science and moralizing in books about the world's impending environmental catastrophe, Fahn has written a personal, firsthand account of the destruction of nature he has observed over years of living in Thailand and traveling around Southeast Asia. Starting with how the megacities, such as Bangkok, have been losing their last bits of green space, he takes the reader to the countryside where logging is destroying the forests, dam building has raced ahead without regard for the social and environmental costs, and farmers are left without their traditional sources for irrigation. And, of course, there is the unchecked pollution of newly booming industries. Fahn does tuck in the essential statistics, but his focus is on what he has observed, especially as a result of the boom years of rapid economic development.

F O R E I G N AF FA I R S September/October2003 [18 9]

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