Chiang Mai between Empire and Modern Thailand

Taylor M. Easum is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana State University with research interests in Southeast Asian, urban, and colonial history. Recent publications include articles on contested urban networks, the construction of Thai and Lao ethnic identity, monuments and historical memory, and ongoing questions of urban heritage in Southeast Asia.

''Chiang Mai between Empire and Modern Thailand is not so much the history of a city as a history of space, of centers and peripheries, of heritage and modernity. [...] will be of interest primarily to specialists of Southeast Asia and Thailand in particular, it contains important insights for anyone studying urban ization, colonialism, and nation-building.'' — Taylor M. Easum, American Historical Review , June 2025

• Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration and Sources Table of Contents Introduction: Living in the City The Urban Space of Chiang Mai Organization of the Book 1 The City Founded: A Deep Urban History of Chiang Mai Urban Genesis in the Mainland The Foundation of the “New City” Center, Hinterland, Region Conclusion 2 The City Stabilized: The Kawila Restoration and Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth Century Chiang Mai Abandoned Chiang Mai Rebuilt The Nineteenth Century Logic(s) of Chiang Mai’s Urban Space Conclusion 3 The Region Transformed: Forests and Foreigners and State Formation in Chiang Mai and “The North” Lanna’s “Second Golden Age” Shifting the Balance Siamese State Formation in the North – A “Silent Revolution”? Conclusion 4 The City Reshaped: Power and Urban Space in Micro-Colonial Chiang Mai Spaces of Power – The Old Town Chiang Mai and the development of a “Dual City”? Spatial Transitions Conclusion 5 The New City and the New State: Chiang Mai’s Sacred Space and Siam The Decline of Sacro-Spatial Legitimacy in the Chiang Mai State Khruba Siwichai, the State, and the Restoration of Sacred Space(s) Conclusion Conclusion: The Heart of the City Bibliography Index