comments:
Winichakul, Thongchai. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-body of a Nation. University of Hawaii Press, 1997. It was written in English, and later translated and published in Thai by Silkworm Books (2004), which also provides an informative English-language blurb here: https://silkwormbooks.com/products/siam-mapped Siam Mapped provides a foundation without which the reader's understanding of the maps, and discussions of countries, borders, and sovereignty that are the meat & potatoes of Southeast Asian history books can be highly misleading. The Lost Territories (Shane Strate, UH Press 2015) looks at construction of modern Thai history in a regional and international context. Its subtitle, "Thailand’s History of National Humiliation," relies on a historian's term-of-art frequently employed in studies of China: the use of apparent defeat as a key element of nation building. Finally, Luang Wichit's central role in creating the modern Thai schoolchild's understanding of Thai history cannot be overstated. Barmé's MA thesis, the basis of his book, is available online: https://web.archive.org/web/20200215120713/https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/128738/2/b17412687_Barme_S.pdf I'll also mention this for a brief (20 pages) but broad overview of Thai historiography from Prince Damrong to Aj's Nidhi, Charnvit, and Somsak. Jory, Patrick, 'Thai Historical Writing', in Axel Schneider, and Daniel Woolf (eds), The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 5: Historical Writing Since 1945, Oxford History of Historical Writing (Oxford, 2011), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199225996.003.0027 For all works mentioned, if ye seek, ye shall find.