2011/09/26 by Michael K. Connors
Social Sciences · #Asian Studies and History #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies #Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/00472336.2011.610619
openalex publication_date 2011/09/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Although many people date critical commentary on the Thai monarchy to Paul Handley's explosive biography The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej, this article demonstrates the existence of a consistently critical body of work, in the English language, that emerged contemporaneously with the king's growing stature from the 1980s. It also considers the conditions that have led to wider and more vocal criticisms since the coup of 2006. The primary focus is an exploration of new contributions to this critical commentary by the authors of the edited collection Saying the Unsayable: Monarchy and Democracy in Thailand. It identifies tensions across the chapters, including different emphases on liberalism and conservatism, and on the symbolic functioning of the monarchy.