| Description |
1 online resource (ix, 232 pages) : illustrations, map |
| Series |
Book collections on Project MUSE
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| Contents |
Practices. Consumption modes, tastes, and identity of Siam's modernizing elite : changing modes of courtly consumption/westernized tastes, symbolic capital, and social identity/conspicuous consumption and royal absolutism. Presentation and representation of the royal self : refashioning civilization's accoutrements/presenting and representing the modern royal self/the image of Chulalongkorn in Siamese eyes -- Spaces. Suburban playgrounds : urban layout and palatial architecture from the first to the early fifth reign/building the modernizing elite's Bangkok/the suburbanization of courtly life. Field of glory : the absolute monarchy's grand theater Manqu/larger than life -- Spectacles. Refashioning the theater of power : first act/second act/third act/finale. On the world stage : Siam at international exhibitions. At the bazaar of exoticism/"the most despotic country in the civilized world". Bangkok on the Po. Epilogue : monarchy and memory |
| Summary |
Lords of Things offers a fascinating interpretation of modernity in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Siam by focusing on the novel material possessions and social practices adopted by the royal elite to refashion its self and public image in the early stages of globalization. It examines the westernized modes of consumption and self-presentation, the residential and representational architecture, and the public spectacles appropriated by the Bangkok court not as byproducts of institutional reformation initiated by modernizing sovereigns, but as practices and objects constitutive of the very identity of the royalty as a civilized and civilizing class. Bringing a wealth of new source material into a theoretically informed discussion, Lords of Things will be required reading for historians of Thailand and Southeast Asia scholars generally. It represents a welcome change from previous studies of Siamese modernization that are almost exclusively concerned with the institutional and economic dimensions of the process or with foreign relations, and will appeal greatly to those interested in transnational cultural flows, the culture of colonialism, the invention of tradition, and the relationship between consumption and identity formation in the modern era |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-224) and index |
| Notes |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
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In English |
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digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
Monarchy -- Thailand.
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HISTORY -- Asia -- Southeast Asia.
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Monarchy
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Politics and government
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Social conditions
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Monarchie
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Politik
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Imagepolitik
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Vorstenhuizen.
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Beeldvorming.
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Moderniteit.
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Verwestersing.
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15.75 history of Asia.
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| SUBJECT |
Thailand -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh86002109
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Thailand -- Social conditions. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00002662
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| Subject |
Thailand
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Thailand
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2002001546 |
| ISBN |
9780824863388 |
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0824863380 |
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