Description
Book SynopsisBased on close reading of historical documents - poetry as much as statistics - and focused on the conceptualization of technology, this book is an unconventional evocation of late colonial Netherlands East Indies (today Indonesia). It invents a way to talk about freedom, colonialism, nationalism, literature, revolution, and human nature.
Trade Review"A thought-provoking study... Recommended reading for anyone who studie this period of Indonesian history."--Tineke Hellwig, Pacific Affairs "As no other book has done, this one conveys the feel and flavor of modernity as it took root in the early twentieth-century Indonesia."--James R. Rush, American Historical Review "A striking and deeply engaging historical study... In tracing this history, Rudolf Mrazek takes the reader on a journey, sometimes strange, through the jungles, laboratories, houses, trains, and latrines of late-colonial life. He also brings to life a cast of historical characters ... who used everything from toilets to airplanes as tools for articulating and reflecting upon what it meant to be modern in the Indies... Mraze develops his theoretical insights with a light hand through the telling of an original history that takes surprising and quirky turns."--Joshua Barker, Technology and Culture Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony is a wonderfully moody book. Moody, because it aims at capturing the aura of the Dutch East Indies in the last seventy-five years of colonial rule almost as much as it attempts to tell a critical, historical story. Wonderful, because it succeeds at this project better than any other book that I have read about this particular time and place. One feels as if time travel has been accomplished by the time that the last page is reached... We do not so much analyze the world of this Dutch colony from the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century as we live in it for three hundred pages... It really should be read by anyone who cares about Indonesia."--Eric Tagliacozzo, Journal of Asian Studies
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Preface xv ONE: Language as Asphalt 1 Bare Feet 1 Hard and Clean Roads 4 Struggle for the Roads 8 Language-game 18 Bahasa Indonesia, "Indonesian Language" 31 TWO: Towers 43 Homes on Wheels and Floating Homes 43 The Cities 52 The Camps 60 The Towers 73 THREE: From Darkness to Light 85 The City of Light 85 Dactyloscopy 97 The Floodlight 103 The Sublime 112 The Mirror 120 FOUR: Indonesian Dandy 129 The Dolls 129 The Modern Times 130 Nationalism and the Birth of the Dandy 143 The Death of the Dandy 147 The Parade 154 FIVE: Let Us Become Radio Mechanics 161 The Metaphor 161 The Thing 166 The Voice 174 The Closed Circuits 182 The Mechanics 189 EPILOGUE: Only the Deaf Can Hear Well 193 Sjahrir Recalled 193 Memories of Holland 197 Time in Three Dimensions 202 Bacteria 204 The Splendid Radio 207 The Mouth of Karundeng 210 Sportsmen-Dandies-Jokers-Engineers 215 Ear Culture 220 The Happy End 222 Notes 235 Sources 285 Index 303
