Description: Under the slogan 'Merdeka!' the Republic of Indonesia rushed into a battle for independence, a struggle of which no one could predict the outcome. Harry Poeze and Henk Schulte Nordholt provide a new narrative about the revolution, one that focuses not only on the fight against the Dutch but also on the precarious rise of the Republic.
Brief description: Harry Poeze is a former publisher, an honorary fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (Koninklijk Instituut van Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, KITLV) in Leiden, and one of the leading researchers of the Indonesian Revolution.
Review Quotes: 'Merdeka differs from other studies because it dismantles established myths and concentrates on the internal dynamics of the Indonesian Revolution.'
- Bambang Purwanto, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta