Book Review: Far East: Indonesia, the Communist Party of Indonesia 1951–1963
| Date | 01 December 1965 |
| Published date | 01 December 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000442 |
| Author | Justus M. van der Kroef |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
572
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Japan
had fallen
behind
the
West
in
technological
progress,
each
of
those
who
succeeded
had
become
"intoxicated"
with
the
need
for
inno-
vation.
While
an
affirmation
of
the
profit
motive was
necessary,
it
only
made
explicit
a
trend
well
underway. But
that
"idealistic" motives
of
risking
effort
and
profit
in
enterprises
felt
necessary
for
the
nation's
advancement
were
of
decisive
importance
is
attested
to in
case
after
case.
The
"hard"
lesson
from
these
facts
for
developing societies
today,
the
author
suggests,
is
that
the
availability
of
capital,
natural
resources,
or
even
technical
aid
is
of
less
weight
than
"the
will
to
succeed."
He
does
admit
that
in
Japan
this
drive
had
great
cultural capital
to
harness
in
terms
of
social
organization,
discipline,
and
national
unity,
which
may
reduce
the
applicability
of
the
lesson.
He
does
not
go
into
the
question
of
whether
the
growth
of
the
zaibatsu
combines
in
Japan
involved
any
undesirable
social
costs
or suggest
any
alternatives;
nor
does
he
offer
any
theory
of
development.
But
his
sociological
historio-
graphy,
based,
in the
absence
of
statistical
data,
on
biographical
ma-
terials
and
Japanese
and
American
scholarship,
combined
with
a
highly
readable
and
non-technical
presentation,
should
assure
that
his
sound
conclusions
will
be
readily available
to
those
interested
in modern
Japan
or
in
developing
societies
generally,
even
if
they
are not
spe-
cialists.
University
of
Southern
California
GEORGE
0.
TOTrEN
INDONESIA.
By
J.
D.
Legge.
1964.
(Englewood
Cliffs,
N.J.:
Toronto:
Prentice-Hall.
viii,
184pp.
Paperbound
$2.25.
Clothbound
$5.00)
THE
COMMUNIST
PARTY
OF
INDONESIA
1951-1963.
By
Donald
Hindley.
1964.
(Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press.
xvii,
380pp.
$8.50)
There
has
long
been
a
need
for
a popular but
comprehensive
ac-
count
of
Indonesian historical
evolution
that
focusses
upon
some
of
the
country's principal
unresolved problems
today, and
Professor
Legge's
new
volume
goes
far
in
meeting
this
need.
Legge,
Professor
of
History
in
Monash
University, Australia,
has
more
or
less followed
the
con-
ventional
stages
in
the
description
of
the
Indonesian
history,
with
suc-
cessive
chapters
on
the
early
Hindu
period,
the
impact
of
Islam,
the
ascendancy
of
the
West
and
the
Dutch empire, and
the
rise
of
national-
ism
and
independence,
concluding
with a
brief
chapter
on
the
contem-
porary
"Search
for
Identity."
In
his
opening
chapter
the
author
raises
the
curtain
on some
of
the
intractable
difficulties
of
the
modern nation-
building process
in
Indonesia,
ranging
from
the
unfavourable
ratio
of
population
to
economic
resources,
to
the
relatively
undeveloped
state
of
both
structure
and
established
procedures
of
political
activity.
In
subse-
quent
chapters
Legge
enlarges
on
these
questions
within
the
framework
of
specific
interpretations,
such
as
those
of
Herbert
Feith
and
Leslie
Palmier,
on
the
origins and
pattern
of
political
instability
in
Indonesia.
Treatment
of
these
interpretations
seems
somewhat
more
extensive
than their
actual
importance
merits,
and
in
the
concluding
chapter
the
author
wisely
contents
himself
with
outlining
trends
of
both
continuity
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