Book Review: A Civilized Woman: M.L. Boonlua Debyasuvarn and the Thai Twentieth Century; Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity

A group of army officers and civil officials compelled King Prajadhipok, the monarch at the time, to accept the transformation of the polity from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Even then she did not, however, assume a traditional role for a Thai woman but continued, with her husband's support, to take an active role in public life. In the penultimate chapter of Kepner's biography, we learn of a seminar in 1974 when Boonlua offered a liberal revisionist interpretation of a number of Thai classics; in other words, she once again found a way to adapt to the new realities of Thai life while still maintaining her traditional heritage.