NUS Press discounts books on Indonesia to November 8

In celebration of Indonesia as the Country of Honour at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair and NUS Press author Goenawan Mohamad as Chairman of the fair's organising committee, NUS Press is offering a selection of Indonesian titles at 35% discount.

Highlights include:

Islam, Nationalism and Democracy: a Political Biography of Mohammad Natsir, by editor and historian Audrey Kahin, who was managing editor of Southeast Asia publications and editor of the journal Indonesia at Cornell University from 1978 to 1995. She is currently a member of the journal's editorial advisory board (2012, ISBN: 978-9971-69-571-2, S$38). 

Mohammad Natsir (1908 to 1993) was a leading Muslim politician in Indonesia who went from heading the country's first post-independence government and largest Islamic political party to spending years in rebellion and in prison. After initially welcoming Soekarno's overthrow in 1965, he became an outspoken critic of the successor Suharto government's rule. Natsir's writings reveal a man struggling to harmonise his deep Islamic faith with his equally firm belief in national independence and democracy.

Drawing from a wide range of materials, including these writings and extensive interviews with the subject, this political biography of Natsir positions an important Muslim politician and thinker in the context of a critical period of Indonesia's history, and describes his vision of how a newly independent country could embrace religion without sacrificing its democratic values.

"Natsir has long deserved a serious biography, so Audrey Kahin's book is welcome and valuable." said Professor Merle Calvin (MC) Ricklefs, Professor Emeritus of the Australian National University. He was formerly Professor of History at the National University of Singapore and Monash University, and Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University.

The winner of the 2015 George McTurnan Kahin Prize, Islamisation and Its Opponents in Java: A Political, Social, Cultural and Religious History, c.1930 to Present by Ricklefs (2012, ISBN: 978-9971-69-631-3, S$45). This award is given biennially to an outstanding scholar of Southeast Asian studies from any discipline or country specialisation to recognise distinguished scholarly work on Southeast Asia beyond the author's first book.

The Javanese, one of the largest ethnic groups in the Islamic world, were once mostly 'nominal Muslims'. As times changed from colonial rule through Japanese occupation and revolution to the democracy of the Sukarno period, the Soeharto regime's aspirant totalitarianism and the democratic period since, that society has changed profoundly to become an extraordinary example of the rising religiosity that marks the modern age.

"One of the finest [books] ever written on religion and culture in Java and Indonesia a case study in Islamisation that is among the finest I know from any part of the Muslim world a brilliant book by a historian at the peak of his craft." comments Dr Robert Hefner about the book. Hefner is Professor of anthropology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University.

Islam and Nation: Separatist Rebellion in Aceh, Indonesia by Edward Aspinall, Senior Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University (2009, ISBN: 978-9971-69-485-2, S$25) presents a study of the genesis, growth and decline of a nationalist movement.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with nationalist leaders, activists and guerillas, Aspinall reveals how the Free Aceh Movement went from being a quixotic fantasy to a guerilla army in the space of a generation, leading to a bitter conflict in which thousands perished. And by exploring the complex relationship between Islam and nationalism, Aspinall also explains how a society famed for its Islamic piety gave rise to a guerilla movement that ended up rejecting the Islamic goals of its forebears.

"Aspinall's book is scholarship of the highest order, and is likely to remain the reference point for subsequent reflections on the conflict in Aceh for years to come." said Dr Joseph Chinyong Liow, Dean and Professor of Comparative and International Politics at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He concurrently holds the inaugural Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, where he is also a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Program.

Kampung, Islam and State in Urban Java by Patrick Guinness, Head of School and Reader in Anthropology at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University (2009, ISBN: 978-9971-69-470-8, S$38), outlines how the nature of community in urban Java has changed during the economic and political transition that followed the fall of the Soeharto regime in Indonesia.

"This is a valuable resource book for anyone with an interest in community development, urban society and state-societal relations in modern Indonesia. More broadly, it will apeal to those interested in the changing phenomenon of the kampung across a rapidly urbanizing Malay world," comments Dr Michelle Ann Miller, Senior Research Fellow in the Asian Urbanisms Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

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Enjoy 35% off by entering the discount code ID35 at checkout. All prices shown are before discount. The offer ends 8 November 2015. Excludes delivery charges. While stocks last

*All images from the NUS Press website.

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