The killing season: a history of the Indonesian massacres, 1965–1966, by Geoffrey B. Robinson,. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018. Pp. xx + 456. Hardcover £30.00, ISBN: 978-0-691-16138-9 ; paperback £18.99, ISBN: 978-0-691-19649-7 .

The killing season: a history of the Indonesian massacres, 1965–1966, by Geoffrey B. Robinson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018. Pp. xx + 456. Hardcover £30.00, ISBN: 978-0-691-16138-9 ; paperback £18.99, ISBN: 978-0-691-19649-7.

Ignorance about those who are lost undermines the reality of the world. (Zbigniew Herbert)

This excellent book is a combination of careful scholarship, thoughtful analysis, clear writing, and moral commitment. In the fall of 1965, the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI) was the third largest communist party in the world, behind only the state-mandated Soviet and Chinese communist parties, with membership in the party proper and associated organizations in the millions. A conjunction of favourable trends seemed to put the PKI on the threshold of peaceful accession to power. It had the support of the charismatic hero of Indonesian independence and head of government, President Sukarno, of influential members of Sukarno’s circle, and of some elements of the armed forces. By mid 1966, however, half a million members of the PKI and its associated organizations had been slaughtered, another million were imprisoned, leftist organizations had been banned, and the Indonesian Army had imposed the authoritarian New Order that would dominate Indonesian life for subsequent decades.¹ While known to specialists in Southeast Asian and Cold War history, the existence, nature, and scale of these crimes are not as well known as the smaller-magnitude killings of leftists in 1970s South America or the more recent Bosnian massacres.² Robinson’s accessible narrative and lucid analysis will do much to increase awareness of these tragedies.

In a series of well-written chapters, Robinson describes the domestic and international structural features that set the stage for this break in Indonesian life, the murky history of the coup attempt that precipitated the massacres, the dynamics and nature of mass killing, the enormous detentions that accompanied and followed the massacres, and the lasting effects on Indonesian society. Woven throughout the book are useful comparisons with other mass killings of the twentieth century.

The years prior to the massacres saw increasing political polarization, mass political mobilization, and failure of nascent democratic institutions within Indonesia. Robinson describes Indonesian politics in the early 1960s as competition among powerful blocs, including the PKI and several conservative nationalist and religiously affiliated...