Thailand's Moment of Truth
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 228
ISBN-13:
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A Kingdom in Crisis
Author: Andrew MacGregor Marshall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-11-15
Total Pages: 256
ISBN-13: 1783607807
DOWNLOAD EBOOK'Perhaps the best introduction yet to the roots of Thailand's present political impasse. A brilliant book.' Simon Long, The Economist Struggling to emerge from a despotic past, and convulsed by an intractable conflict that will determine its future, Thailand stands at a defining moment in its history. Scores have been killed on the streets of Bangkok. Freedom of speech is routinely denied. Democracy appears increasingly distant. And many Thais fear that the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej is expected to unleash even greater instability. Yet in spite of the impact of the crisis, and the extraordinary importance of the royal succession, they have never been comprehensively analysed – until now. Breaking Thailand's draconian lèse majesté law, Andrew MacGregor Marshall is one of the only journalists covering contemporary Thailand to tell the whole story. Marshall provides a comprehensive explanation that for the first time makes sense of the crisis, revealing the unacknowledged succession conflict that has become entangled with the struggle for democracy in Thailand.
Moments of Silence
Author: Thongchai Winichakul
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Published: 2020-03-31
Total Pages: 322
ISBN-13: 0824882857
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe massacre on October 6, 1976, in Bangkok was brutal and violent, its savagery unprecedented in modern Thai history. Four decades later there has been no investigation into the atrocity; information remains limited, the truth unknown. There has been no collective coming to terms with what happened or who is responsible. Thai society still refuses to confront this dark page in its history. Moments of Silence focuses on the silence that surrounds the October 6 massacre. Silence, the book argues, is not forgetting. Rather it signals an inability to forget or remember—or to articulate a socially meaningful memory. It is the “unforgetting,” the liminal domain between remembering and forgetting. Historian Thongchai Winichakul, a participant in the events of that day, gives the silence both a voice and a history by highlighting the factors that contributed to the unforgetting amidst changing memories of the massacre over the decades that followed. They include shifting political conditions and context, the influence of Buddhism, the royal-nationalist narrative of history, the role played by the monarchy as moral authority and arbiter of justice, and a widespread perception that the truth might have devastating ramifications for Thai society. The unforgetting impacted both victims and perpetrators in different ways. It produced a collective false memory of an incident that never took place, but it also produced silence that is filled with hope and counter-history. Moments of Silence tells the story of a tragedy in Thailand—its victims and survivors—and how Thai people coped when closure was unavailable in the wake of atrocity. But it also illuminates the unforgetting as a phenomenon common to other times and places where authoritarian governments flourish, where atrocities go unexamined, and where censorship (imposed or self-directed) limits public discourse. The tensions inherent in the author’s dual role offer a riveting story, as well as a rare and intriguing perspective. Most of all, this provocative book makes clear the need to provide a place for past wrongs in the public memory.
Moment of Truth in Iraq
Author: Michael Yon
Publisher:
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKInternationally acclaimed for his vivid shocking and intimate coverage, no reporter knows the battle zones of Iraq better than Michael Yon. The former Green Beret has been getting into the thick of it for years. Now Yon tells the true story of the surge --the last ditch effort of American and Iraqi soldiers to snatch Iraq back from the abyss. Yon has never been co-opted by Left or Right, Military or Media. In 2005, Yon was the first battlefield reporter to write that Iraq was spiraling into civil war. The fighting officers and soldiers Yon covers know this former Green Beret stands with them. Our soldiers lead him to
Moment of Truth
Author: Kelly McKinney
Publisher: Savio Republic
Published: 2018-07-17
Total Pages: 225
ISBN-13: 1682615928
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“Miami Beach Devastated by Monster Category 5 Hurricane” “Times Square Incinerated by Homemade Nuclear Bomb” “Magnitude 9.0 Earthquake Reduces Downtown Seattle to Rubble” These aren’t actual headlines—but they could be. Even though they sound like next summer’s blockbuster movies, each of these worst-case scenarios is a real threat—a threat for which America is hugely underprepared. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This is not a book about disasters. Instead, Moment of Truth will tell you what these genuine threats mean for society as a whole, as well as for your region or town—or you. All we have to do is open our eyes and look beyond the “brick wall of hope” that clouds our vision in collective denial. In addition to advice for government, Moment of Truth contains practical steps that you can take now keep you and your family safe in the face of the next catastrophe. Because it may come down to just you.
Bangkok 8
Author: John Burdett
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Published: 2003-06-03
Total Pages: 329
ISBN-13: 1400040914
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA thriller with attitude to spare, Bangkok 8 is a sexy, razor-edged, often darkly hilarious novel set in one of the world’s most exotic cities. Witnessed by a throng of gaping spectators, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes Benz. Among the witnesses are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep—a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I.—is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner’s murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones and captures her heart in the process. In a city fueled by illicit drugs and infinite corruption, prostitution and priceless art, Sonchai’s quest for vengeance takes him into a world much more sinister than he could have ever imagined.
A Good True Thai
Author: Sunisa Manning
Publisher: Epigram Books
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 374
ISBN-13: 981490127X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFinalist for the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize In 1970s Thailand, three young people meet each other with fateful results. Det has just lost his mother, the granddaughter of a king. He clings to his best friend Chang, a smart boy from the slums, as they go to college; while there, Det falls for Lek, a Chinese immigrant with radical ideals. Longing for glory, Det journeys into his friends’ political circles, and then into the Thai jungle to fight. During Thailand’s most famous period of political and artistic openness, these three friends must reconcile their deep feelings for one another with the realities of perilous political revolution. Reader Reviews: “Epic in sweep but precise in its details, A Good True Thai shines on all fronts. Time and again, Sunisa Manning resists easy answers, reaching for nuance, for complexity, for truth. An astounding debut from a talented new voice.” —Kirstin Chen, bestselling author of Bury What We Cannot Take “Sunisa Manning understands deeply and innately that politics is woven through the strongest and most ambitious fiction, just as it is through life itself.” —Rachel Kushner, Booker-shortlisted author of The Mars Room “The story of Thailand’s democracy movement in the 1970s is almost unknown in the rest of the world, but Sunisa Manning insists on recapturing and preserving it in this beautiful and astonishing novel. Read and immerse yourself in a narrative that speaks so profoundly to the condition of Thailand, and the world, today.” —Jess Row, award-winning author of Your Face in Mine “Sunisa Manning brings to life a tortured, misunderstood nexus in the painful evolution of Thailand’s democracy with immediacy and vividness, never losing her sharply-drawn characters in the labyrinth of history. Mingling narratives of insider and outsider in a terse, swiftly-moving style, she drags the past into the present, unveiling complex truths with a remarkable clarity of vision.” —SP Somtow, multi-award-winning author of Jasmine Nights “The 1970s leftist and anti-authoritarian protests that drive the characters in Manning’s authentic and engaging novel are among the most important and controversial political events in modern Thai history. Frighteningly, the general context of conflicts that the novel covers is still very relevant today. Foreigners who want to understand the long-lasting crisis in Thai society, and the complex psyche behind the famous ‘Thai smile’, should read this book.” —Prabda Yoon, award-winning author of The Sad Part Was
After the Coup
Author: Michael J Montesano
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Published: 2019-01-07
Total Pages: 474
ISBN-13: 9814818984
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAfter the Coup brings together the work of a group of leading Thai intellectuals of several generations to equip readers to anticipate and understand the developments that lie ahead for Thailand. Contributors offer findings and perspectives both on the disorienting period following the Thai coup of May 2014 and on fundamental challenges to the country and its institutions. Chapters address regionalism and decentralization, the monarchy and the military, the media, demography and the economy, the long-running violence in Southern Thailand, and a number of surprising social and political trends certain to shape the future of Thailand. The volume will serve as a valuable resource for all those concerned with that future. “This highly acclaimed collection of scholars’ answers to basic questions about the political situation after the 2014 military coup in Thailand offers a comprehensive analysis of many crucial institutions and sensitive issues that no other work has touched. The book covers the intricate relationships among conflicting classes, political movements, the military, and, above all, the monarchy. It puts on the table many important debates about the crisis of democratization in the country, including the struggle of Malay-Muslims in Southern Thailand, the transformation of electoral violence, the dilemma of political decentralization, the changing roles of the media, and the impact of slowing economic growth and an ageing society on the future of Thailand.” —Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, Chulalongkorn University, author of The Rise of the Octobrists in Contemporary Thailand “After the Coup should be read by anyone interested in understanding the current state of Thailand’s political affairs, tracing the historical origins of the current challenges and conflicts, or looking for clues about what may be to come. This outstanding set of scholars explores how Thailand’s disparate collective identities are at the root of the current political and social conflict. These collective identities carry with them different visions of what it means to be ‘Thai’, what democracy is and how it should function, and the sources of political legitimacy. The chapter authors describe how those behind Thailand’s ‘ambitious coup’ have attempted to crush, co-opt, quell, and contain these competing visions.” —Allen Hicken, University of Michigan, author of Building Party Systems in Developing Democracies “Featuring a collection of essays authored by many of the field’s leading lights, expertly curated and edited by one of the most knowledgeable scholars in Thai Studies, After the Coup is a vital contribution to the study of contemporary Thai politics. The depth and sophistication of its analysis, and the variety of viewpoints represented, make it a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the significance of the events set in motion by the military coup staged in Thailand on 22 May 2014, one in crucial respects quite unlike the series of coups d’état that punctuate the country’s modern political development.” —Federico Ferrara, City University of Hong Kong, author of The Political Development of Modern Thailand “This book covers many of the most important current aspects of the Thai political problem, to help readers better understand why Thailand continues in its struggle to democracy. For example, it provides for a very insightful sense of an emergent middle class that has been one of the main obstacles in Thai democratic progress, both before and since the military coup d’état of 2014.” —Titipol Phakdeewanich, Dean, Faculty of Political Science, Ubon Ratchathani University
The King Never Smiles
Author: Paul M. Handley
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2006-01-01
Total Pages: 512
ISBN-13: 0300130597
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej, the only king ever born in the United States, came to the throne of his country in 1946 and is now the world's longest-serving monarch. This book tells the unexpected story of his life and 60-year rule: how a Western-raised boy came to be seen by his people as a living Buddha; and how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political, autocratic, and even brutal. Paul Handley provides an extensively researched, factual account of the king's youth and personal development, ascent to the throne, skilful political maneuverings, and attempt to shape Thailand as a Buddhist kingdom. Blasting apart the widely accepted image of the king as egalitarian and virtuous, Handley convincingly portrays an anti-democratic monarch who, together with allies in big business and the corrupt Thai military, has protected a centuries-old, barely-modified feudal dynasty. When at nineteen Bhumibol assumed the throne after the still-unsolved shooting of his brother, the Thai monarchy had been stripped of power and prestige. Over the ensuing decades, Bhumibol became the paramount political actor in the kingdom, crushing critics while attaining high status among his people. The book details this process and depicts Thailand's unique constitutional monarch in the full light of the facts.
The Political Development of Modern Thailand
Author: Federico Ferrara
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015-03-26
Total Pages: 345
ISBN-13: 1316299252
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBased on extensive, empirical research, The Political Development of Modern Thailand analyses the country's political history from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Long known for political instability, Thailand was thrust into a deep state of crisis by a royalist military coup staged in 2006. Since then, conservative royalists have overthrown more elected governments after violent street protests, while equally disruptive demonstrations staged by supporters of electoral democracy were crushed by military force. Federico Ferrara traces the roots of the crisis to unresolved struggles regarding the content of Thailand's national identity, dating back to the abolition of absolute monarchy in 1932. He explains the conflict's re-intensification with reference to a growing chasm between the hierarchical worldview of Thailand's hegemonic 'royal nationalism' and the aspirations that millions of ordinary people have come to harbour as a result of modernisation.
