Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony (Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History)
"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 CultureEngineers 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