Thailand: Economy and Politics

Rating:
Summary: An excellent, readable review of Thai political hsitory
Review: In the past, Thai history was written by noblemen and created an idyll of a virtuous past, filled with happy peasants living a simple life under the watchful eye of benevolent despots. Unfortunately, many Westerners followed in this tradition, although they (and Thai nobles) criticized more recent, military regimes. This book breaks out of that box and makes it clear that life has never been easy for Thai peasants and that upper classes have rarely been all that virtuous. The authors also show a much more diverse Thailand than the "homogeneity" that is popularly ascribed. In addition, they detail the corruption of recent decades that should make Americans (as well as Japanes and others) who abetted it ashamed of the role they've played in in supporting horrible regimes. An excellent volume that is revisionist in the most positive sense of the word.