Historian alone is an inadequate description. Charnvit Kasetsiri is a historian-activist. In 1973, he wrote a pioneering history of Ayutthaya as a Cornell University doctorate, published by Oxford University Press. He taught at Thammasat University for five decades and briefly served as rector. He has presented on Thai history at countless international gatherings. He has promoted the work of his students and colleagues so often that his prefaces for their works fill a fat book.
All that is part of the historian's day job, though exceptionally well done. In addition, Charnvit has been an activist and entrepreneur for history as a discipline and a social force. Working with the Toyota Foundation, he inspired a series of conferences and associated volumes on aspects of Thai history and arranged the translation into Thai of many classics of Western scholarship on Thailand and Asia. He kickstarted the study of Southeast Asia in Thai universities in the hope that better knowledge might underpin better relations with neighbours. He promoted the infusion of new ideas into the teaching of Thai history at schools. He has led tours to historical sites throughout Thailand and its Asian neighbours.
