A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World

This is a great work that benefit immensely from its ability to go across Thai and English written materials, it both functions as a gathering, discussion of others work, and their own primary source material. For me it painted a gathered picture of especially Ayutthaya and its important role as a commercial center, which also draw lines to the present day system, but also backwards towards what Sukhothai was. However, for me one of the most interesting aspects is the documentation of the continuous diversity of Siam and especially the central plain.

(3.5/5) For the first cohesive book on the history of Ayutthaya, the framing is fair and is overall the book is good (and somewhat readable from start to finish).I do have some problems with the book though. First, the book's pacing is off, it doesn't flow like a chronology. Each chapters don't correspond wholly to a single time period, rather some events are moved back a chapter and others moved forward a chapter. The most puzzling decision was putting the demographics chapter in between Age of Commerce and the Fall of Ayutthaya chapters, it breaks the flow. My other problem is that the book comes off as pro-pacifistic, which I can sympathize with to some extent. However, I think the book removes too much of the warfare aspect of Early Modern SE Asia. I definitely suggest reading this book alongside the works of older Thai historians like Prince Damrong and W. A. R. Wood's works to get a better composite of Early Modern Siam, who in my opinion do a better job at portraying warfare in Thai history.Baker's "Ayutthaya Rising: By Land or By Sea" is a more concise reading than "A History of Ayutthaya", which I also recommend, although it only talks about the first half of Ayutthaya's history up to 1560 and is also quite expensive if you don't have a JSTOR account. I will also recommend Baker and Phongpaichit's "Thailand: Economy and Politics".

A concise history of Ayutthaya in less than 300 pages. After reading the book, I better understand the influence of Ayutthaya on modern Thai culture and society