A book, the king and the 2006 coup

Abstract

This article involves an assessment of Paul Handley's important book, The King Never Smiles. A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej. The article begins with a discussion of the supposed threat the book posed to the monarchy and outlines the attempts to prevent publication. It then outlines Handley's evaluation of the involvement of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's palace in Thailand's modern politics. It uses this approach as a way to examine the clash of elites within Thailand's ruling class that led to a royalist campaign against the Thaksin Shinawatra government and the 2006 military coup. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.