Pen and Sail

Nidhi Eoseewong is the most innovative, famed, and controversial Thai historian of his generation. This book founded his reputation and is the first of his major works to appear in English.

Combining intellectual history and economic history, this book argues that the emergence of a market economy in the early Bangkok era (1782-1855) was the driving force behind a major change in mentality and worldview seen in poetry, early prose works, biographies of the Buddha, scripts for chanting the Jataka tales, language primers, and more.

Pen and Sail combines intellectual history and economic history. Nidhi argues that the emergence of a market economy in the early Bangkok era (1782–1855) was the driving force behind a major change in mentality and worldview seen in poetry, early prose works, biographies of the Buddha, scripts for chanting the Jataka tales, language primers, manuals of behavior, and revisions of the royal chronicles.