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A History of Thailand offers a lively and accessible account of Thailand's political, economic, social and cultural history. This book explores how a world of mandarin nobles and unfree peasants was transformed and examines how the monarchy managed the foundation of a new nation-state at the turn of the twentieth century. The authors capture the clashes between various groups in their attempts to take control of the nation-state in the twentieth century. They track Thailand's economic changes through an economic boom, globalisation and the evolution of mass society. This edition sheds light on Thailand's recent political, social and economic developments, covering the coup of 2006, the violent street politics of May 2010, and the landmark election of 2011 and its aftermath. It shows how in Thailand today, the monarchy, the military, business and new mass movements are players in a complex conflict over the nature and future of the country's democracy.
This unusual and intriguing study of nationhood explores the 19th-century confrontation of ideas that transformed the kingdom of Siam into the modern conception of a nation. Siam Mapped challenges much that has been written on Thai history because it demonstrates convincingly that the physical and political definition of Thailand on which other works are based is anachronistic.
Written by a British consul living in Thailand, this is the first book in a western language on the country's history, based, almost entirely, on ancient Thai documentation. It covers the subject from the earliest history until the democratic reforms of the early 1930s.
The first full history of a great commercial and political center that rose in Asia over almost five centuries.
Thailand is known for its picturesque beaches and famous temples, but there's much more to this popular holiday destination than many realize. A Brief History of Thailand offers an engaging look at the country's last 250 years--from coups and violent massacres to the invention of Pad Thai in the 1930's. Readers will learn the vibrant story of Thailand's emergence as a prosperous Buddhist state, its transformation from traditional kingdom to democratic constitutional monarchy and its subsequent rise to prominence in Southeast Asian affairs. Thailand's dramatic history spans centuries of conflict, and this book recounts many of these fascinating episodes, including: The true story of Anna Leonowens, the British governess hired to teach the children of King Mongkut, fictionalized in Margaret Landon's bestselling novel Anna and the King of Siam and turned into a hit Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and film, The King and I The bloodless Siamese Revolution of 1932 that established overnight the first constitutional monarchy in Asia, ending almost eight centuries of absolute rule and creating a democratic system of parliamentary government The Japanese invasion of Thailand and construction of the "Bridge Over the River Kwai" made famous by the novel and Oscar-winning film The mysterious death of King Ananda Mahidol, murdered in his bed in 1946, and a source of controversy ever since The development of Thailand as an international playground during the Vietnam War, when American military used it as rowdy destination for servicemen on furlough The 70-year reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-serving monarch, who was born in the U.S., educated in Switzerland, loved to play the saxophone and was idolized by his people With this book, historian and professor Richard A. Ruth has skillfully crafted an accessible cultural and political history of an understudied nation. Covering events through the King's death in 2016, A Brief History of Thailand will be of interest to students, travelers and anyone hoping to learn more about this part of the world.
Ambassadors from Versailles in wigs and lace mounted on elephants crossing rice fields... Siamese mandarins prostrate before the throne of Louis XIV... a Greek adventurer... a scheming French Jesuit­— these are just a few of the colourful characters that playa role in the early history of relations between Siam and the West. In a lively and engaging style, Professor Dirk Van der Cruysse traces the history of European-Siamese relations, from the arrival of the Portuguese around the beginning of the sixteenth century followed by the Dutch, the British, and the French. Explorers, merchants, missionaries, and ambassadors came and went across the oceans, sometimes producing vivid accounts of lengthy voyages, lavish courts, and strange customs. In these descriptions and anecdotes we observe the startling juxtaposition of fundamentally different worldviews arising from two distinct religious milieux. Van der Cruysse expertly weaves together material from journals,memoirs, and other archival documents, quoting from them extensively to construct a compelling historical account of a fascinating relationship. Originally published as Louis XIV et le Siam (Fayard, 1991), this English version has been ably translated by Michael Smithies, author of numerous books and articles on the French involvement in Siam during the seventeenth century.
Unlike its Southeast Asian neighbors, Thailand was never colonized by an imperial power. However, Siam (as Thailand was called until 1939) shared a great deal in common with both colonized states and imperial powers: its sovereignty was qualified by imperial nations while domestically its leaders pursued European colonial strategies of juridical control in the Muslim south. The creation of family law and courts in that region and in Siam proper most clearly manifests Siam's dualistic position. Demonstrating the centrality of gender relations, law, and Siam's Malay Muslims to the history of modern Thailand, Subject Siam examines the structures and social history of jurisprudence to gain insight into Siam's unique position within Southeast Asian history. Tamara Loos elaborates on the processes of modernity through an in-depth study of hundreds of court cases involving polygyny, marriage, divorce, rape, and inheritance adjudicated between the 1850s and 1930s. Most important, this study of Siam offers a novel approach to the question of modernity precisely because Siam was not colonized yet was subject to transnational discourses and symbols of modernity. In Siam, Loos finds, the language of modernity was not associated with a foreign, colonial overlord, so it could be deployed both by elites who favored continuation of existing domestic hierarchies and by those advocating political and social change.
In English.
Part fact, part fiction, part myth, and part legend, this book brings to life the kingdom of Ayutthaya from its roots in the kingdom of Sukhothai to its eventual destruction by the Burmese in 1767. It is the turbulent story of both the kings and their kingdom, from its birth to its downfall. Robert Smith retells this history by reimagining and dramatizing the exploits of Ayutthaya's rulers, building his account around a framework of documentary evidence and hints in the historical record. Intrigues and deception wind through the tale as do ingenuity, honor, and the will to greatness that made Ayutthaya a major regional power for centuries. This account of the development of a nation--and the stories behind it--shows how the old kingdom of Ayutthaya was a crucial precursor to the foundation of modern-day Thailand.