Richard A. Ruth is an associate professor of Southeast Asian history in the United States. He received a Ph.D. in history and an M.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University. A former journalist and NGO field agent, he spent more than a decade working, researching, and writing in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. He is the author of A Brief History of Thailand -- Monarchy, War, and Modernity: The Fascinating Story of the Gilded Kingdom at the Heart of Southeast Asia (Tuttle, 2021) and In Buddha's Company: Thai Soldiers in the Vietnam War (U. of Hawai'i Press, 2012).
