The Emergence of a National Economy: An Economic History of Indonesia, 1800–2000. By Howard Dick, Vincent J. H. Houben, J. Thomas Lindblad, and Thee Kian Wie. Crows Nest NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2002. Pp. xvii, 286. $38.00

Written by four leading economic historians of Indonesia from three continents, this book is an excellent account of the emergence of the Indonesian economy in the twentieth century from what was a cluster of disparate economic regions at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Using an innovative and, in the context of Indonesia, highly appropriate theme, the authors identify three fundamental forces that shaped the emergence of the Indonesian national economy: successive waves of globalization (and dislocation), state formation, and economic integration. The book is admirably successful in fulfilling its claim, not an easy task given the volume of literature that had to be mastered and put into perspective in order to comprehensively describe this process.