History in Uniform: Military Ideology and the Construction of Indonesia's Past

ASAA Southeast Asian Publications Series

by Katharine E. McGregor

History in Uniform is the first detailed analysis of the Indonesian military's image-making efforts, and one of a very small group of studies to examine a key institution within the Indonesian military--the Armed Forces History Centre. Based on a unique set of sources that includes interviews with staff of the Centre, museum records, guidebooks, collections of military doctrine, seminar proceedings, films, textbooks, and commemorative histories of the military and the Centre, the book offers a rare examination of the significance of history to a politicized military force and to a modernizing nation.

Genres: History, Indonesian Literature

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Tari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku ini membahas bagaimana konstruksi sejarah yang dilakukan oleh militer dan orde baru melalui produk kebudayaan menjadi alat legitimasi naiknya orde baru ke tampuk kekuasaan. Dalam buku ini, mencermati peran penting Nugroho Notosusanto menerbitkan narasi usaha kudeta 65 versi angkatan darat dan merupakan awal dari narasi berulang terkait wacana anti-komunisme pada masa Orba.

Buku ini sangat direkomendasikan bagi siapapun yang ingin memahami peristiwa 65 dengan perspektif yang berbeda.

[Jonah Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable contribution to understanding the specific "how" of the Indonesian state's national education project.

A mix of two approaches - historical narrative of the process of historical production by Indonesia's state historians, as well as observational studies of the products of that process - museums, monuments, films, textbooks, seminars, pilgrimages.

[Hubert Han · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough study of how the New Order regime and the military sought to legitimise their dominance of Indonesia's polity through an anti-communist and anti-Islamist narrative, manifesting in museums, books, curricula, and even hikes.

You sometimes get the feeling that this would have made an excellent chapter within a book about the New Order regime; more objective judgments (rather than mere descriptions) on the *validity* of the New Order's chosen narratives would not have gone amiss.

[Ashfa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was very important to learn, especially for us which interested to history controversial