Rhetoric and the Decolonization and Recolonization of East Timor

Rhetoric, Violence, and the Decolonization of East Timor presents a compelling and original perspective of the critical period of 1974-1975 in the history of East Timor. It challenges the idea that this period of history was infused by the spirit of nationalism in which the majority Timorese partook, and which contended with other competing western ¿isms, including colonialism, communism, neo-colonialism, and fascism. In contrast, the book argues that the Timorese majority had little understanding of any of these alien political abstractions and that the period can be most plausibly explained in terms of a dialectic between the political culture of Dili, the capital, and the political culture of the rest of the country.