Synopses & Reviews
Covering the past three centuries of Thai history, this book reveals how a landscape of sparsely populated forest and jungle was transformed into villages and paddy fields, with a rural society of smallholder peasants and an urban society populated mainly by migrants from southern China. It demonstrates how throughout the twentieth century, Thailand has been drawn into the international system, the American camp in the Cold War, the economic gambit of rising Japan, and more recently, the forces of globalization. The authors also survey the country's transformation accompanying massive social evolution over recent decades. (Control of the nation state is still contested between forces with a patriarchal belief in change from above, and advocates of democracy and liberal values.)
Review
'As the most conceptual study of thailand yet it reaches a new level of sophistication.' BBC History Magazine
Review
'Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit cover this ground with secure jusgement and great insight.' Times Literary Supplement
Review
'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
Review
'[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
Review
'... an engaging and factually rich introduction to the history of modern Thailand.' South East Asia Research
Review
'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
Synopsis
This lively, accessible book is the first new history of Thailand in English for two decades.
Synopsis
This book covers the past three centuries of Thai history. Over this period, a landscape of sparsely populated forest and jungle was transformed into villages and paddy fields. An older order of mandarin nobles and unfree labor was replaced by a rural society of smallholder peasants and an urban society populated mainly by migrants from southern China. Through the twentieth century, Thailand has been drawn into the international system, the American camp in the Cold War, the economic ambit of rising Japan, and the forces of globalization.
Synopsis
This lively, accessible book is the first new history of Thailand in English for two decades.
About the Author
Christopher Baker writes regularly in the Thai and Asian regional press. He is the co-author of Thailand: Economy and Politics, Thailand's Boom and Bust, Thailand's Crisis and Thaksin: The Business of Politics in Thailand.Pasuk Phongpaichit is Professor of Economics at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. She has written widely in Thai and English on the Thai economy, Japanese investment, the sex industry, corruption, and the illegal economy.
Table of Contents
1. Before Bangkok; 2. The old order in transition, 1760s to 1860s; 3. Reforms, 1850s to 1910s; 4. Peasants, merchants, and officials, 1870s to 1930s; 5. Nationalisms, 1910s to 1940s; 6. The American era and development, 1940s to 1960s; 7. Ideologies, 1940s to 1970s; 8. Globalization and mass society, 1970s onwards; 9. Politics, 1970s onwards; Tailpiece: the strong state and the well-being of the people.