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Thai historian Thongchai Winichakul's account of a critical period in Thai history pairs an originalap proach with thorough academic research. As the subtitle `a History of the Geo-Body of a Nation' already suggests, the book deals with the crucial episode of the formation of Thailand as a nation-state.

Inspired by Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson's seminal work on nationalism, the author explains in his introduction that he intends to focus his analysis on a by historians much neglected aspect of the spatio-temporal category: geography.

Taking the traditional Buddhist worldview as a starting point, he describes how 19th Century Siam, as Thailand was then called, had to come to terms with the many alien concepts considered commonplace in the science of modern geography. Many of these concepts were to have important political implications.

Deriving its political system from the Buddhist `Mandala model', the Siamese initially had great difficulies coping with the elementary aspects of political geography. Boundaries and more in particular border demarcations were, if not unknown altogether, considered of minor or no importance in the political view of the traditional ruling class. The Siamese were perfectly at ease in dealing with often illdefined and fluid spheres of influence, frontiers and the `thick lines' of the boundary regions separating the indigenous political entities of Southeast Asia. Likewise they saw no contradiction in the double sovereignty under which the territories at the `margins' of the regional kingdoms often fell.

But the Siamese proved to be fast learners and Thonchai quickly dispels the myth that the Siamese were mere victims of or only innocent bystanders at the high political game that was played by the colonial powers in 19th Century Asia. Instead he contends that Siam was very conscious of what was at stake and was just as much a player as Britain or France.

`Siam Mapped' is an innovating, provocative and very refreshing account of a very important phase in the history of Thailand. Already exercising its influence on the further course of research into the development of the Thai national-state, this book is a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the history of Thailand or nationalism in general.