A Brief History Of Bali: Piracy, Slavery, Opium and Guns: The Story of an Island Paradise

by Willard A. Hanna, Tim Hannigan (Introduction)

This book tells the story of Bali--the "paradise island of the Pacific"--its rulers and its people, and their encounters with the Western world.

Bali is a perennially popular tourist destination. It is also home to a fascinating people with a long and dramatic history of interactions with foreigners, particularly after the arrival of the first Dutch fleet in 1597. In this first comprehensive history of Bali, author Willard Hanna chronicles Bali through the centuries as well as the islanders' current struggle to preserve their unique identity amidst the financially necessary incursions of tourism.

Illustrated with more than forty stunning photographs, A Brief History of Bali is a riveting tale of one ancient culture's vulnerability--and resilience--in the modern world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Willard Anderson Hanna

Reviews

[Teo Nagy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a good book about politics and history of Bali/Indonesia but for me it didn’t go deep enough into cultural and religious topics. I acknowledge the title says it clearly that the book is more about history and it’s probably my mistake that I expected something different but this is the main reason I’ll give it only three stars.

I liked the epilogue chapters written by Hannigan which placed the whole book in better context and provided a critical view on the author’s writings which showed a quite biased uncritical view of the geopolitical US/Western establishment.

I also enjoyed Willard’s unique perhaps anachronistic style of writing which was quite readable and refreshing for me.

[Casey McGregor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable and informative read. Brief as the title suggests, but also concise and succinct. The narrative was easy to follow and didn't seem to have too much bias until closer to the Sukarno years of the mid 20th century. At that point you can tell the original author, Willard Hanna, writing in the 60's and 70's at the height of the Cold war, had a very anti-communist take of Sukarno and a very pro capital take on the Suharto years. The book includes a few epilogue chapters writing by Tim Hannigan that explains the Hanna issues and brings his own less maligned view of the left parties of Indonesia and Bali.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tracing of humans first arrival to Bali and their early years of Hinduization and conflict with Java were quite interesting. As were the details of Bali's initial interactions with Dutch, English, and Chinese traders.

After the first couple of chapters though, the book sank into a quagmire of an unimaginative litany of internal warfare between Balinese kingdoms. Occasionally, some engaging descriptions would emerge of key figures in these struggles and a spark of interest would flash. And then they would be sucked back down into the banal listing of innumerable conflicts.

Of note was both the gradual encroachment of the Dutch and their eventual "control" of the island, which was done mostly through proxy and ceremony. Not quite the straight forward hammer of colonialism that one would expect.

World War 2 and the subsequent Sukarno regime received a seemingly cursory and less equitable review then the earlier history written by Mr. Hanna.

At this point, I had read a 2 star book. However, the epilogue by Tim Hannigan was excellent. He explains the bizarre ending of Hanna's piece and then goes on to provide a concise and informative exposition of Balinese history up through the early 21st century. Of particular note though, is Hannigan's thoughtful evaluation of tourism's impact on Bali. Very well done and quite nuanced. If Mr. Hannigan had written the whole book, it would probably be more like a four star work.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5🌟

This book is not a brief history of Bali. It is a detailed description of dutch colonialism and conquest, which happens to be in Bali.
The narrative is very one sided and entirely comes from the dutch or outside perspective. I feel like I did not learn anything about the Balinese, their culture, and feelings about the dutch invasion.

If you look at this book as insight into dutch colonialism then you might get something from it. However, it focussed a lot on important figures, names you'll forget two pages later and dates, which was not something I was very invested in.

The introduction and the epilogues written by Tim Hannigan contextualsied the work of Hanna a little which was very much needed, but was also not enough to make it a story of Bali and the Balinese.

I read this because I visited Bali and wanted to learn about the island, its people and their culture... for this, this was the wrong book definetly.

[CP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book on Balinese history. The front part primarily concerns the colonial relationship, especially around political development. Not enough emphasis on cultural and economic history. The later part is surprisingly positive on Balinese development trajectory to the extent that it fails to expose some critical issues.

[Diego Cerezo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book in a sentence: a not so brief history of Bali, from the 17th century to the 20th, covering wars, politics, economy, religion.

Key Lesson Learned: Bali is a popular tourist destination thanks to its colonial domination, its discovery by ex-pats as a beautiful destination, and its tourist masterplan started 40 years ago.

[Bea Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up for an overview of Bali history but would say the book really focuses on 18th-early 20th century and especially the Balinese-Dutch relationship. The writing betrays the authors own time, nationality and biases but because this perspective was so obvious it was not unenjoyable. The epilogues by Hannigan, which flesh out the author's background, make the whole book even better.

[Bryan Edgington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this while traveling in Bali - have some context to locations and a few city names. Interesting collection of historical events that lead to where Bali is in the present day. The original portion ends at the 1970s, updates by a second writer to get closer to the present.

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very brief guide but let's the reader know about modern Bali history. Easy to read and enjoyable.

[Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting book on Bali's history over the centuries. It demystifies a lot of stories about the island, and explains a lot more. Definitely a must read for those interested in understanding how Bali got to where it's at, and why it is so different from other parts of Indonesia.

Written in an easy to read manner, but packing a lot of information, facts and stories.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea. I am not a native english Stecker, but I usually do not have issues with reading english literature. However, the style in this book feels old and progress is slow. I got lost in details, so that I had to stop. I liked history of Indonesian from the same publisher more.

[Chris Bishop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This text was a struggle to read, even as a student of history. The structure chapter organization was convoluted and odd sentences riddled the stories throughout the text. It was refreshing to get to the Epilogue which was written by Tim Hannigan as he was able to tell the story in a more engaging way.