In this lively book, Benedict R. O'G. Anderson explores the cultural and political contradictions that have arisen form two critical facts in Indonesian history: that while the Indonesian nation is young, the Indonesian nation is ancient originating in the early seventeenth-century Dutch conquests; and that contemporary politics are conducted in a new language, Bahasa Indonesia, by peoples (especially the Javanese) whose cultures are rooted in medieval times. Analysing a spectrum of examples from classical poetry to public monuments and cartoons, Anderson deepens our understanding of the interaction between modern and traditional notions of power, the mediation of power by language, and the development of national consciousness. Originally published by Cornell University in 1990, this book has now been reprinted in 2006 as part of the Equinox Classic Indonesia series.