"... the main strength of Activist Archives is that it raises important questions by not providing all the answers. In this way, it invites frequent re-reading, creating a richer understanding of the micropolitics of student activism upon each re-read." — Yatun Sastramidjaja, Contemporary Southeast Asia
"Lee has produced an exemplary study of the under-researched field of the everyday life of Indonesian politics and its forefront agent of change." — Kharisma Nugroho, Journal of Applied Youth Studies
“Activist Archives can be called a definitive work that will be prized as perhaps the best ‘biography’ of a generation of Indonesian urban activism.”
— Abidin Kusno, Pacific Affairs
"A new perspective on the legacy and role of activism in a more democratic Indonesia. . . . Gene Sharp’s recipe for nonviolent revolution and the successful uprisings in the Arab Spring have brought activism and the role of students and youth back to the forefront of how we can understand regime change. Doreen Lee’s book provides us with much more detail on who the students are, the conditions under which they organize, live, demonstrate, connect with the past and with the masses, the 'rakyat.'" — Amy L. Freedman, Anthropos
“Activist Archives is an important exploration of the 1998 Indonesian student movement and its ongoing influence, adding greatly to our knowledge of student movements and democratization in postcolonial settings.” — Rachel Rinaldo, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
“[Activist Archives] does a real service for scholars through engaging and presenting . . . these activist writings, for they reference something inalienable and untranslatable regarding the New Order’s notion of the exception of sovereignty. The book therefore contributes to understanding the archive as both a subject in as well as an object of social science inquiry.” — Dylan Fagan, Asian Journal of Social Science
"Activist Archives undoubtedly offers us a new approach to the analysis of Reformasi, student and youth politics in the recent history of Indonesia. It provides new insights, enriched via an extensive use of fieldwork and archival material." — John G. Taylor, Asian Affairs
"Lee’s work . . . attends carefully to the production and recuperation of activist archives." — Johan Lindquist, Anthropology of this Century
“Activist Archives is undoubtedly a significant contribution to the anthropological analysis of youths and political culture in modern Indonesian history.” — Farabi Fakih, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
“A valuable expansion. Activist Archives should be of interest to students and other scholars from a range of disciplines concerned with the ephemerality and endurance of democratic transitions.” — Mary E. McCoy, Journal of Asian Studies
"Activist Archives is rich in many ways. . . It will find an appreciative audience, in Indonesian studies and well beyond." — David Kloos, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
"An important contribution of Activist Archives is its focus on the everyday places of politics and the repertoires of resistance central to student and youth politics. . . . The book shows how grand political ideals and the memories of protest movements thrive in everyday spaces, how the politics of resistance is reproduced and how the memories of past politics have helped to shape activists in the present." — Salman Hussain, PoLAR
"Elegantly written, rich with ethnographic and archival material, and bursting with theoretical insights, Activist Archives offers novel analysis of one of the most important subjects of contemporary Indonesia. In Doreen Lee's sensitive ethnography the student activist emerges expressing a mix of fiery passion, intellectual idealism, irreverent playfulness, hipster self-consciousness, nostalgia, rivalry, and disillusionment. Artfully tacking between theory and the activists' everyday experiences, Lee shows how 'generation 98' has both sustained its identity and faded in relevance. Activist Archives will be a classic." — Karen Strassler, author of Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java
"Following the students through the city's streets, highways, dormitories, cafes, and other city spaces, Doreen Lee brings Jakarta to life, and what she tells us is truly enlightening. Activist Archives makes a significant contribution to Indonesian studies and to the study of youth activism in the world generally." — Rudolf Mrázek, author of A Certain Age: Colonial Jakarta through the Memories of Its Intellectuals