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The discovery of an official report, so far unpublished, about coolie scandals on the plantations on Sumatra's East Coast around the year 1900, motivated me to produce a full-length book on this theme. My original intention had been merely to write a short introduction to the publication of a shocking historical document. However, I changed my mind when it became obvious that proper understanding of the source required more background information on the social and policy framework within which the plantation system operated. This applied both to conditions on the estates themselves and to the evaluation of those affairs by official and non-official outsiders. The main aim of my study is to contribute to the historiography of industrial labour in Southeast Asia. However, it also analyses die linkage that came about between capitalist industry and colonial policy in a region that formed part of the so-called Outer Provinces of die Netherlands Indies.

It is not every literary novice, blushing diffidently over her first manuscript, who easily finds a publisher, still less one prepared to pay an advance of several million pounds. But not every first author has such a story to tell as Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving British prime minister of the twentieth century. It was the previous record holder, Asquith, who first established the notion that retired prime ministers write their memoirs, and he did so under a twin motivation which was not peculiar to himself. He sought vindication and he was after the money.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- INTRODUCTION The Urban "Underclass" as a Metaphor of Social Transformation -- PART ONE: The Roots of Ghetto Poverty -- CHAPTER 1 Southern Diaspora: Origins of the Northern "Underclass -- CHAPTER 2 Blacks in the Urban North: The "Underclass Question" in Historical Perspective -- PART TWO: The Transformation of America's Cities -- CHAPTER 3 The Structures of Urban Poverty: The Reorganization of Space and Work in Three Periods of American History -- CHAPTER 4 Housing the "Underclass -- PART THREE: Families, Networks, and Opportunities -- CHAPTER 5 The Ethnic Niche and the Structure of Opportunity: Immigrants and Minorities in New York City -- CHAPTER 6 The Emergence of "Underclass" Family Patterns, 1900-1940 -- CHAPTER 7 Poverty and Family Composition since 1940 -- CHAPTER 8 Social Science, Social Policy, and the Heritage of African-American Families -- PART FOUR: Politics, Institutions, and the State -- CHAPTER 9 The Black Poor and the Politics of Opposition in a New South City, 1929-1970 -- CHAPTER 10 Nineteenth-Century Institutions: Dealing with the Urban "Underclass -- CHAPTER 11 Urban Education and the "Truly Disadvantaged": The Historical Roots of the Contemporary Crisis, 1945-1990 -- CHAPTER 12 The State, the Movement, and the Urban Poor: The War on Poverty and Political Mobilization in the 1960s -- CONCLUSION Reframing the "Underclass" Debate -- Contributors -- Name Index -- Subject Index

Shifting Views: Selected Essays on the Architectural History of Australia and New Zealand consisting of sixteen papers presented at the annual conferences of the Society of Archectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) is reviewed. The book deals with the architectural debates and the review assesses the quality of papers and discusses the contribution the book makes towards popularizing architectural history in New Zealand.