Destiny

Prince Diponegoro was one of the foremost figures of nineteenth-century Indonesia and Dr Peter Carey's research about and understanding of him exceeds that of any other historian. This book is thus very important and will be of great interest to any reader wishing to understand this transition period and this remarkable figure who so profoundly influenced the history of Indonesia. (M.C. Ricklefs, Professor Emeritus, The Australian National University)
Prince Diponegoro's remarkable autobiographical Babad Diponegoro, is now recognised as a world monument to cultural wisdom. [...] Peter Carey's monumental scholarship has resurrected an historiography which transcends individual destiny. His book inspires us with new ways of addressing the current challenges of the transition from the old to the new world [...] Diponegoro's great resistance movement is now seen as a lodestar for Indonesia's leadership and the very essence of its fighting spirit. (Dr P.M. Laksono, Yogyakarta)
Peter Carey's book assiduously, sharply and sensitively develops perspectives and interpretations of the role of prophecy in the context of the Java War. [...] In telling detail, he elucidates the beliefs, hopes, illusions, personal vendettas, local conflicts and the arrogance and incapacity of the Dutch colonial authorities - stories which are both local and specific. At the same time, he includes changing socio-economic conditions [...] and the forces of European colonialism in international politics. Carey thus presents a story which [... allows] us to develop new perspectives on Dutch colonialism and the rise of Indonesian nationalism in the early twentieth century. (Goenawan Mohamad, Prize-winning Indonesian author/editor)
This biography of one of the great national figures of Indonesia represents in many respects the distillation of the author's distinguished writings on the early nineteenth century history of Java published over more than thirty years.
As the pre-eminent scholar of the period of the Java War (1825-30), Dr. Peter Carey traces in his new book the remarkable and somewhat tragic life of the principal Indonesian protagonist, Prince Diponegoro of Yogyakarta (1785-1855), against the bitter social and economic conflict which affected large areas of Java and changed the course of the colonial relationship between Indonesia and the Netherlands.
The influential and inspirational character of Diponegoro is brilliantly analysed in a work of great historical interest and authority. Its historical interest, indeed, is bound to appeal not only to scholars of Indonesia but also to those with a particular interest in Java during the first half of the nineteenth century. (Dr John Bastin, former Reader in South East Asian History, SOAS)