Journalisten en heethoofden Een geschiedenis van de Indisch-Nederlandse dagbladpers 1744-1905

As soon as he passed the equator, every Dutch journalist became a hothead, violent in his reactions to the neglect of the Dutch East Indies colony, where the press was the only mouthpiece for public opinion. In the absence of freedom of the press, the militant, often emotional style of the Indies press, popularly dubbed 'tropical style', not infrequently gave rise to head-on collisions between newspapers and governors. Because they circulated in relatively small communities, there was a strong bond between these papers and their readers, with their unquenchable thirst for diversion and entertainment. Hence they are an invaluable source on the intimate history of the Europeans and on inter-ethnic relations in the colony, while the serial stories they featured formed the basis for Dutch Indies literature. This unique work, based on the actual newspapers themselves from 1744 to 1905 (about seventy in all), describes the history of the Indies press. It contains a wealth of information on colonial politics, society and culture.