Front Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgements

A Note on Names

Preface to the Second Edition

Introduction: Telling the Truth about Thailand

Part I: Royalty versus Reality

1. ‘When the Legends Die, All Collapses’ Thailand’s Political Awakening

2. ‘In a Never-Never Land, Never Mind’ Welcome to the Land of Smiles

3. ‘Cosmological Bluster’ The Dramatics of Despotism

Part II: Thai-Style Democracy and Its Discontents

4. ‘Our Country Belongs to the People – Not to the King’ Thailand’s Unfinished Revolution

5. ‘I Really Am an Elected King’ The Royalist Revival

6. ‘There is Magic, Goodness and Power in His Heart’ The Deification of Rama IX

Part III: The Secrets of Succession

7. ‘Endless Struggles for the Throne’ The Causes of Chronic Palace Conflict

8. ‘One Neither Walks, Speaks, Drinks, Eats, nor Cooks Without Some Kind of Ceremony’ The Pleasures and Privations of Being King

9. ‘I Cannot Afford to Die’ The Tragedy of King Bhumibol

Part IV: Crisis and Confrontation

10. ‘Living in Horrifying Times’ Twilight of the Oligarchy

11. ‘Coupmakers’ Haunted Dreams’ Escalation and Enlightenment

12. ‘Returning Happiness to the People’ Denying Democracy, Sabotaging Succession

Epilogue: ‘Flip on the Lights and Flush Out the Ghosts’ What the Future Holds

References

Index

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