Before he became famous as his generation’s foremost historian of Java, Dr. De Graaff had been a history teacher at various secondary schools in the Dutch East Indies. He had been an advocate of a benign kind of colonialism. You find this reflected in this History of Indonesia, published in 1949 when Indonesia became independent. Dr. De Graaff had intended to include more of the Indonesian side than in the books of his predecessors, who mostly relied on foreign (Western, Chinese, and Arab) sources. Given the limited native sources of information available, he integrated some of the legends from the babads: his experience as a history teacher clearly shines through. Given his opinion on colonialism, Dr. De Graaff is somewhat more positive (or should I say “tolerant”) about the more controversial figures of colonial rule than later generations.

Various newer histories have since replaced this 500-page book, however few in Western languages cover the prehistory of Indonesia and the various “outer islands” as extensively as this book. Funnily, he also included the Dutch colonies and trading posts administered from Batavia. The short chapters (of limited interest) on Taiwan, Ceylon, Nagasaki, and the Cape of Good Hope make Indonesia look like the centre of global empire.

Although I seemed to have encountered some errors in this first edition, I found the book still quite readable, although I skipped a few chapters where I had read newer books. ( )