Product Description

In A History of Thailand, Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit reveal how a world of mandarin nobles and unfree labour evolved into a rural society of smallholder peasants and an urban society populated mainly by migrants from southern China. They trace how a Buddhist cosmography adapted to new ideas of time and space, and a traditional polity was transformed into a new nation-state under a strengthened monarchy. The authors cover the contests between urban nationalists, ambitious generals, communist rebels, business politicians, and social movements to control the nation-state and redefine its purpose. They describe the dramatic changes wrought by a booming economy, globalization, and the evolution of mass society. Finally, they show how Thailand's path is still being contested by those who believe in change from above and those who fight for democracy and liberal values. Drawing on new Thai-language research, this second edition brings the Thai story up to date and includes a new section on the 2006 coup and the restoration of an elected government in 2008.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #374213 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 334 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780521759151
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
'As the most conceptual study of thailand yet it reaches a new level of sophistication.' BBC History Magazine

'Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit cover this ground with secure jusgement and great insight.' Times Literary Supplement

'In A History of Thailand, Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, two respected Bangkok-based scholars, offer a lively, highly readable account of modern Thai history, the first such history in English for two decades.' Financial Times

'[This book] is the first attempt in English to write a history of this country in the modern sense of 'history' ... This book is essential reading for anyone seriously interest in Thailand: how it came about; its present strengths and weaknesses; and its potential in the future of a very unstable world.' Journal of the Siam Society

'... an engaging and factually rich introduction to the history of modern Thailand.' South East Asia Research

'This is the first new history of Thailand for two decades, written by a husband and wife team who have already written a number of books on contemporary Thailand. Their challenge was to marshal coherently a deal of complicated and unfamiliar material.' Asian Affairs

About the Author
Chris Baker taught Asian history at Cambridge University, and has lived in Thailand for over twenty years. He is now an independent writer, researcher, and translator.

Pasuk Phongpaichit is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

Customer Reviews

excellent and balanced look at one of the lesser Tigers
The authors of this compact Cambridge University Press history of Thailand deliver on their promise. This is a vintage CUP product: balanced, full of measured opinion, error-free in typography and layout, sweeping without shallowness.

There is not a better one-volume entrance to this fascinating but lesser-known South East Asian Country.

Taking the nation-state seriously, the authors show how an ethnically diverse region with formidable Chinese influence and lineage gradually took shape as the somewhat mythical 'Thai people'. Known as Siam until modern times, Thailand was an ally of the US during its Vietnam era with mixed results when the GIs arrived for R&R and even more traumatic adjustments when they took their dollars and left.

Later the hot money of the greater Asian Tigers moved here from Taiwan and Japan, only to migrate to China when cheaper labor became available to foreigners in that country.

The Thai are nothing if not survivors. Nor were they ever fully colonized, a badge of honor in a region that knew perhaps too much of European and Asian pretenders to do just that.

A History of Thailand
This book is primarily a history from the current line of kings (roughly 1800) through the present. Thus, if you want to learn how modern Thailand was formed, it is an excellent source. If you are looking for earlier information, it is very sketchy.

One of the best history book on Thailand
I am a Thai and since my childhood I have read many history books on our nation. All of those books is written by Thai, mostly in the view of historians. This book looks into Thai history from the view of economist. That makes it unique and more interesting (at least for me). For the readers who want to know about Thai history, this book should be the first one to read.