{"product_id":"engineers-of-happy-land-technology-and-nationalism-in-a-colony-9780691091624","title":"Engineers of Happy Land  Technology and","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased on close reading of historical documents - poetry as much as statistics - and focused on the conceptualization of technology, this book is an unconventional evocation of late colonial Netherlands East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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList 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","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49922428076375,"sku":"9780691091624","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780691091624.jpg?v=1738537852","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/engineers-of-happy-land-technology-and-nationalism-in-a-colony-9780691091624","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}