Books in the NIAS Reports series

After the collapse of Roman civilization, knowledge of mathematics dwindled in Europe. In the Arab world, however, the works of ancient mathematicians like Euclid were preserved and built upon by new thinkers like al-Khwarizmi, who became instrumental in spreading Indian mathematics and numerals to the West. Little known to Western historians, a parallel development of mathematical knowledge was happening in China. A rare glimpse of this world is offered via a translation and elaboration of one of the canons of classical Chinese mathematical education. Wang Xiaotong's Continuation of ancient mathematics shows us a stage in the development from the 1st to the 14th century CE of the Chinese traditional algebra of polynomials. Here in the 7th century, columns of numbers used in root-extraction procedures are recognized as equations that can be solved numerically, but these equations cannot yet be manipulated. Wang Xiaotong arrives at numerically solvable polynomials through a variety of ad hoc techniques, including geometric constructions and rhetorical algebra. In the 18th century, it would be shown that all of his problems could be solved by straightforward algebraic manipulation of polynomials using 14th-century Chinese methods. Lim and Wagner's in-depth study of the Continuation brings this work to an audience unfamiliar with the history and particulars of Chinese mathematical knowledge. Their worked examples also illuminate the text and invite comparison with the work of medieval mathematicians in the Middle East and Europe. The work will appeal to historians of mathematics especially but anyone interested in the evolution of Chinese science and technology will also find this very informative.

The fall of Suharto has drawn much media and academic attention but the focus has been on the elite perspective, the role of the regime and military, and little has been published on civil society. Gender issues are also often by-passed. Indonesia is at a crossroads and the greater involvement of civil society is being seriously considered for the first time by government representatives and demanded by civil society actors, political think-tanks and social commentators. This study, which covers the lead up to and ousting of Suharto up until the 2004 democratic elections, analyses the role of civil society in Indonesia's transition towards democracy by applying social movement theory and the framework of political opportunities. It shows the importance of social movements as civil society's primary catalysts for change, and the need for a strong civil society to take over where the social movements left off in order to consolidate attitudinal changes in the political, economic and social spheres. The actions and limitations of various parts of the Indonesian pro-democracy movement are discussed, providing case studies of three groups of actors--the student movement, the women's movement and the labour movement--focusing on times when they have joined forces to form social movements. The shortcomings and successes of the pro-democracy movement are discussed, as are the prospects for civil society in the future.

This text brings both literary and archaeological evidence to bear in an investigation of the history of the Han state iron monopoly, with special consideration of the reasons for its establishment and for the intense opposition which it provoked.