Indonesian history as an autonomous history Indonesia as the biggest country in Southeast Asia has a long and rich history. Hundreds of different ethnicity, languages and cultures signify the diversity of the archipelago state. Moreover, because of its strategic location and vast unique natural resources the archipelago has attracted many people from outside the region. Chinese, Arabs and Westerners especially Spaniards, Portuguese, British and the Dutch came to the archipelago for trade

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... s. Jean Gelman Taylor newly published Indonesian history titled Indonesia:Peoples and Histories is an important addition for the study of Indonesian history. She emphasized most of her narratives on the social history aspect rather than its politics. In this book, Taylor used an original and unique approach in her book by not having any footnotes. Instead, she used what she called as capsules. These small capsules appeared frequently in the book to give the reader a specific example of a particular topic that is currently being discussed. For example in chapter five titled, New Comers in the Muslim Circle, she discussed the arrival of foreigners in the archipelago among others were the Chinese. In that particular chapter she placed a capsule to explain the dynamic relationship between the local elites and the Chinese. She described the relationship had made the Chinese to be depended on the local elites who in turn empowered them as the principal tax collector from the common people. As a result the commoners saw the Chinese as their oppressor. (Page 128-129). In a different capsule from different chapter, Taylor described how the Dutch in 1624 brought and introduced the printing technology to the archipelago 200). From her narratives we can clearly see the influence of the idea of autonomous history, which is a form of history that tried to approach history from the local perspectives in contrast from the common approach that came from Western perspectives. Much of her influence on an autonomous Indonesian history approach came from her mentor, John Smail, her Ph.D advisor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of History. Smail is known as the scholar who wrote an essay about a possibility of an au-115 Illes Imperis -12 Reseñas REV.ILLES I IMPERIS-12 (3g)3 27/7/09 08:02 Página 115