Herzfeld writes anthropology as if delivering a fireside chat, without a trace of jargon, and with humanity filling the frame. He narrates the negotiations between community members and bureaucrats in graphic detail. He dissects the vocabulary used by both sides. He places the whole issue within the framework of Thailand's present and past. . . . Herzfeld's book tells the ... Read morestory of the community with great color and verve but also places it in an international context of community, state, and heritage.
Bangkok Post With painstaking detail, anthropologist Herzfeld documents the two-and-a-half decade struggle of Bangkok's Pom Mahakan community to resist eviction. . . . this is a study of human ingenuity and the impulse to make meaning within the paradoxes and limits of history and culture.
Choice Despite the apparent outcome for this particular community, the book will remain as a powerful tribute to the long-suffering residents of Pom Mahakan and it can and will still be read as a unique and relevant perspective on cultural politics in Thailand.
Pacific Affairs Siege of the Spirits is an essential resource for understanding Pom Mahakan's past and present
as well as its uncertain future. Herzfeld paiints a picture of a complex community that subverts numerous assumptions and stereotypes that are common to urban eviction narratives. The result is an important work of scholarship that will appeal to a wide audience outside of scholars of Thailand and Southeast Asia, especially those interested in engaged anthropology, urbanism and development, heritage and conservation, civil rights, and grassroots movements.
Southeast Asian Studies From start to finish, Siege of the Spirits reads like the captivating political drama it is, evoking what is a very complex reality through the struggles of people in a small, even temporary community. Scholars of Thai studies, sociology, political science, anthropology, and cultural psychology will find much that is worth thinking about in this book, especially in the increasing attention paid to social inequalities and the competing social values that reinforce and resist them.
Current Anthropology Herzfeld draws on his ethnography of local resistance to demonstrate how the local people have not destroyed but created a sacred historic space with humanity and dignity. This book makes a significant contribution to the anthropology of politics, both in a general sense and in the context of the violently political conflicts of Thailand. Much of the prevailing discourse on politics in Thailand focuses on the contradictions between two different kinds of political systems, and treat Thailand as a country swinging between monarchy and democracy. Herzfeld, however, not just revives the anthropological discussion of how 'pulsating galactic polity' and nation-state polity coexist in postcolonial times, but stresses the agency of the local people to move between the two polity models when they are fighting for their community. Tracing the community's strategy and leadership style, this book demonstrates the deep tension and dynamics in Thai political culture. With his involvement in the local resistance for more than ten years, Herzfeld also shows us how engaged anthropology can be as one part of the real political society.
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