SARTONO Kartodirdjo, A[loysius] (1921–2007)

A[loysius] SARTONO Kartodirdjo was the foremost of Indonesia’s first generation of historians who pioneered novel paradigms which had a significant influence on the nation’s history and historiography for more than five decades. He revolutionized the thinking and writing of more than two generations of Indonesian historians. Relentlessly brave and outspoken, he was a voice and beacon of independent thought and scholarship in authoritarian ruled Indonesia. The social and cultural history of the peasantry was his focus, and he brought social history to the forefront of Indonesian history. He championed an autonomous history of Indonesia in the spirit of John Smail.