Synopses & Reviews
This innovative book is a pioneering study of political debate in an important Southeast Asian society. It re-examines the formative period in Malay nationalism and argues against using nationalism as the paradigm of analysis. By "interrogating" key Malay texts from the 19th and 20th centuries, Anthony Milner shows how contested, and problematic, the sphere of nationalism was.
Review
"...stimulating reading for any scholar interested in the origins of political discourse and cross-cultural comparisons of the interaction between individual and society....a fine example of the contribution that culturally based research can make to the questions that are universally relevant." American Historical Review"...it has also refreshed and added new dimensions to the study of Southeast Asian politics....original and penetrating study of Malay political transformation." The Review of Politics"Milner's work teaches us that the language of politics is not a given or a permanent feature of all human societies, but is instead a language that may or may not be constructed to meet particular practical needs. It also teaches us that our conventional concept of politics as the rational manoeuvrings of individuals maximizing their advantages is a serious obstacle to the understanding of the variety and richness of political languages that have been 'invented' in different times and places." Maurizio Viroli, Princeton University"The space of a review is inadequate to do justice to the treasury of historical and archival detail....Milner's text may be read for sheer intellectual enjoyment, even as it skillfully guides the reader through the ideas and events which shaped the Malayasian state and continue to animate it today. This is necessary reading for scholars concerned with more generic processes as well as for those whose special interests lie in the unique history of the Malay peninsula." Judith Nagata, Asian Thought and Society"This book is an important and essential reading for everyone interested in Malaysian politics, history, or anthropology . Anthony Milner offers a new, post-modern style analytical lens through which he approaches the study of political discourse among the Malays of colonial Malaya by interrogating some of the leading Malay writings of the 19th and 20th centuries....he has produced an excellent historical study of Malay political culture and has made an important contribution to our understanding and appreciation of political discourse in the Malaysian experience. This book will take its place among the definitive works not only of Malaysian but also of Southeast Asian political cultural analysis." Martin Rudner, Crossroads
Synopsis
'This innovative book is a pioneering study of political debate in an important Southeast Asian society. Now available in paperback it re-examines the formative period in Malay nationalism and argues against using nationalism as the paradigm of analysis.\n
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Table of Contents
Introduction: colonialism, nationalism and contest; 1. The ancien regime: described and condemned; 2. Establishing a liberal critique; 3. A description of the real world: expanding vocabularies; 4. Conceptualizing a Bangsa community: a newspaper of moderate opinions; 5. Building a bourgeois public sphere; 6. Ideological challenge on a second front: The Kerajaan in contest with Islam; 7. Answering liberalism: Islamic first moves; 8. Kerajaan self-reform: chronicling a new Sultanate; 9. Practising politics in the mid-colonial period; 10. Surveying the homeland; Sedar and dialogic processes; Conclusion: the Malay political heritage.