David K. Wyatt

David K. Wyatt (September 21, 1937 – November 14, 2006) was an American historian and author who studied Thailand. He taught at Cornell University from 1969 to 2002, and also served as Chair of the Cornell University Department of History and as the president of the Association for Asian Studies in 1993. His book Thailand: A Short History has become the chief authority on Thai history in the English language.

David K. Wyatt was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts on September 21, 1937. He was raised in Iowa. He studied philosophy at Harvard University, and received a B.A. in 1959. He furthered his studies at Boston and Cornell University, respectively, where he graduated with an M.A. in 1960 and a Ph.D. in 1966, both in history. His dissertation, which discussed political reform in Thailand, was published in 1969 as Thailand: The Politics of Reform. He learned to speak Thai fluently. He married Alene Wilson, and had three children and five grandchildren.

Before receiving his doctorate, Wyatt accepted a teaching position at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies–where he taught until 1968. After teaching for a year at the University of Michigan, he returned to the Cornell Department of History in 1969–the same year he served as the doctoral advisor to the late historian Benjamin Batson–and taught there until his retirement in 2002. He was the Department's Chair for a time. He was president of the Association for Asian Studies in 1993.

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