Stories from Medan, Volume 2
This book continues to explore Medan’s history, combining archival research with engaging narratives to recreate the city’s colonial past and the lives of its people. Through 35 richly illustrated chapters, it examines the rise of the plantation economy, the experiences of contract labourers, the emergence of nationalist movements, and the development of science, medicine, commerce, arts, and literature. Drawing on historical archives from the Netherlands, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Switzerland, and other countries, the book brings together rare photographs, historical illustrations, newspapers, memoirs, and interviews, including first-hand accounts of former indentured workers. It recounts the lives of influential figures alongside those of ordinary people who shaped Medan’s history. By connecting local experiences with broader economic, political, and cultural developments, the book reveals how Medan became one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Dutch East Indies. Historical place names and contemporary language further bring readers closer to this remarkable past.
Budiman Minasny is a professor of soil science at the University of Sydney, with a keen interest in history. Originally from Medan, North Sumatra, he has authored several scholarly articles on the region's people and their historical narratives. In Soil Science, Budiman is considered a leading authority in soil mapping, has authored more than 200 academic papers, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Dirk Aedsge Buiskool is a historian who lectured in Groningen and at the University of North Sumatra. He contributed to different historical journals and published the award-winning book De reis van Harm Kamerlingh Onnes. He received his PhD from Utrecht University with the thesis “Prominent Chinese During the Rise of a Colonial City: Medan 1890–1942”.