Newberry's book will be of great interest to scholars of Indonesia, but it also should be read by scholars of feminist and political theory. Her research reveals the value of ethnographic depth for analyses of state formation, as it highlights how the New Order state not only generated and distributed abstract ideas about domestic and national life, but brought them together in material forms that generated interpretations about gender and class, egalitarianism, and failure. These strengths also make the book an excellent text with which to teach.
The Journal of Asian Studies
In this fine ethnography, Jan Newberry illuminates the mundane, yet important, ways in which the Indonesian state has entered the lives of women and their families. What we see is neither top-down control nor the 'authentic' traditional community, but rather an interactive dynamic in which the state and community shape each other. Exhibiting similarities to the patterns of cooperation used in Japan to create 'good citizens' and advance economic development, her Indonesian case will interest scholars of East and Southeast Asia alike.
Sheldon Garon, Princeton University, author of Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life
Newberry takes us on a guided tour of gendered domestic space, revealing the innards of an urban community and providing a rare glimpse into the work of ethnographer / couples, where the writer is judged as both ethnographer and housewife.
Penny Van Esterick, York University
An important contribution to studies of gender and the state in Southeast Asia, this eminently readable book is at once engaging and profound.
Mary Steedly, Harvard University
