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Category Archives: Book reviews: History
The Dawn of Modern Korea
20-Jul-08
Andrei Lankov - The Dawn of Modern Korea
EunHaeng NaMu publishing, 2008
Stern(7,g)
This entertaining book has, paradoxically, taken me a devil of a long time to finish. That’s not because it’s difficult. It’s because it’s the opposite.
The book is co-branded with a series of articles that Andrei Lankov has been writing for the Korea Times since 2002. Very interesting articles lasting on average three or four pages. The sort of feature article it's a pleasure to read on a lazy weekend, if you can find it the the pull-out section among the glossy advertisements. But these are individual articles none the less, with very little joining them together.
The book could have done with some editorial oversight – twice in the same article ...
A minjung history of Korea
18-Jun-08
Korea Historical Research Association (tr Joshua van Lieu)
A History of Korea
Saffron Books, 2005
Stern(4,g)
It’s the 1980s. In Britain, leftist ideologues such as Red Robbo, Arthur Scargill and Derek Hatton had for years been railing against the government and the establishment using turgid language pilloried in satirical magazines, TV programmes and film ((Examples: the Dave Spart column in Private Eye, Citizen Smith on the TV, 1977-80, and the representatives of the anarcho-syndicalist commune in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975)).
Anyone who lived through that period in the UK is unable to take such language seriously. And any other English speaker will find the language of this worthy book so monumentally dull and politically loaded that they might find it hard to ...
The Korean War through Literature and Art
(M.E. Sharpe, 2001)
Stern(8,g)
An interesting and approachable collection of papers addressing how the Korean war is represented in the arts of the different countries involved. Chapters address Korean film, visual arts, and poetry, and also how the war impacted the lives and work of six Korean novelists.
For the Korean visual arts, there is surprisingly little material to work with. The author, Roe Jae-ryung, speculates on the reasons for this: partly because artists lacked the visual vocabulary to give expression to the horrors they witnessed; more practical reasons may be that the canvasses simply haven't survived (a similar problem in respect of all paintings from the immediate post-war period); and the fact that even official war ...
Carter J Eckert / Ki-baik Lee / Young Ick Lew / Michael Robinson / Edward W Wagner
(Ilchokak Publishers, for Korea Institute, Harvard University, 1990)
Stern(8,g)
An ambitious book which aims in the space of 400 pages to encapsulate Korea's history from Palaeolithic times up until 1990.
In a book of this nature it is inevitable that, at times, the narrative cannot convey in enough detail some of the key factors driving Korean history. For example, a greater flavour of the factors underlying the factionalism in the Korean court between the North & South, Noron & Soron factions would have been welcome. To a western reader it's hard to understand why seemingly arid debates about whether Yi or Chi is more important should have ...
The Rise and Fall of Chaebols (Cambridge, 2003)
Stern(8,g)
A welcome and very detailed examination of the history and structure of the Korean business conglomerates. The strengths of this book are manifold. First and foremost is the wealth of evidence sourced from the Korea Information Service which provides some raw data for some hard conclusions. And the evidence is marshalled in a user-friendly manner so that in general the arguments are clear.
The book starts with setting some of the economic background to the 1997 crisis. This is important because it highlights that what happened to Korea was not just a domino effect from the currency crisis which started with the collapse of the Thai Baht in July 1997 and which led to ...
Susie Younger: Never ending flower
04-Nov-06
(Collins Harvill, 1967)
Stern(10,g)
To describe this book as a memoir of a Catholic missionary in South Korea in the early 1960s, while factually correct, undersells it. Yes, the author is a person of deep Christian faith, but her work in Korea is more that of a social worker than evangelist. And her observations are those of a highly intelligent, practical person armed with an Oxford PPE degree.
The book is in part a well-written account of the underbelly of Korean society at the beginning of the Park Chung-hee era. Younger works with the street gangs of Daegu who make small amounts of money cleaning shoes; she starts a home for teenage prostitutes; she helps develop some unpromising acres of hillside into a ...
135 Years of War, Crisis and News in the Land of the Morning Calm
(EunHaengNaMu, Seoul, 2006)
Stern(7,g)
A tribute to the many foreign correspondents who have worked in Seoul, this book celebrates 50 years of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club.
The book starts with one of the first mentions of Korea in the Western press: that august organ, the Ohio Repository, on 13 May 1824. Korea is a land of extreme exoticism:
A living mermaid, caught in the sea off Corea, half-way distant from the continent of Asia and the island Jeddo in Japan, is exhibiting in Richmond, Va. Its upper part from the waist resembles a female -- the lower, a fish. Its hair is long and of a dark sea blue. It ...
Chae-jin Lee: A Troubled Peace
28-Oct-06
US Policy and the Two Koreas
(Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 2006)
Stern(7,g)
A very thorough review of the history of the relations between the US and (the two) Korea(s) over the past hundred or so years. To me, there's rather too many trees and not enough wood, but I guess you need to start with the former.
There is a couple of amusing snippets -- firstly about how Park Chung-hee wanted to ensure that the kimchi logistics were sorted out before he committed any more troops to the Vietnam war:
At a meeting with President Park in Canberra in December 1967, President Johnson, who was facing the worsening situation in Vietnam, hoped for a full additional division from South Korea. Citing the National Assembly's filibustering ...
Mark Clifford: Troubled Tiger
05-Jul-06
(M.E. Sharpe, 1998)
Stern(9,g)
Chronicles the modern history of Korea from the 1960s to the mid-90s, focusing on the drive for economic growth and the control exerted by the Blue House over the direction of the economy. Clifford gives us a politically balanced view, emphasising the successes of Park Chung-hee, but not shrinking from laying bare the corruption, coercion and mistakes made by Park, Chun and their successors.
The development of the Chaebols is covered - explaining how they were family feifdoms (and still are?), and how their growth has been geared towards not profits but growth in sales and assets - at almost any cost; and how their growth has been funded less by equity capital investment and more by loans from ...
Review: Admiral Yi Sun-sin
18-May-06
(www.koreanhero.net, 2006)
Stern(4,g)
A quick and easy read setting out the achievements of Admiral Yi in the Imjin war against Japan. As well as telling Yi's story (sometimes using Yi's own war diary and memorials to the throne), the book tries to compare his achievements with events which might be familiar to foreign readers -- Nelson at Trafalgar; the Japanese victory over the Russian fleet in 1905 -- and makes a very convincing case that Yi's victories were more remarkable. Maybe if the authors get around to a revised version they should also include a comparison with another naval victory often credited with turning the course of history: the Greek victory over the Persian fleet at Salamis. The book quotes from British ...
Andrew Holloway: A Year in Pyongyang
10-May-06
(Aidan FC's website, 1988)
Stern(7,g)
Amid the pile of available reading material on the DPRK, is there room for an unpublished memoir, getting on for 20 years old, recording the experiences of a lowly "raiser" -- someone who converts Konglish into English -- in late 1980s Pyongyang? Definitely yes.
Related posts:Kang Chol-hwan: Aquariums of Pyongyang (Basic Books 2001) A harrowing autobiographical account of a young...Pyongyang declaration PYONGYANG, Sept. 17 Kyodo The following is the full text...Pyongyang rock festival to be managed from London I was browsing the DPRK’s Voice of Korea yesterday while...
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(Cassell, 2002)
Stern(5,g)
Shows how factionalism in the Korean court, complacency and incompetence led to the easy conquest of Korea by Japan in 1592. Well illustrated, with maps and photographs, this book plots the course of the 6-year occupation of Korea at the end of the 16th century, and the brutal modes of warfare (Korea's misfortune was to lie on Japan's invasion route into China). Possibly a bit too much military history for my taste; but of course the fun begins when Admiral Yi's turtle ships come into action. Hurrah for the underdog.
Related posts:Review: Admiral Yi Sun-sin (www.koreanhero.net, 2006) A quick and easy read setting out the...DPRK: Japan and the abduction issue It’s been a while since I last received a copy...DPRK ...
(Eastbridge, 2003)
Stern(8,g)
Fascinating account of Korea under Japanese colonial rule, told from the perspective of Westerners living there, predominantly American missionaries.
For a full review of this book, visit the Korean Studies portal.
Related posts:Donald Kirk & Choe Sang-hun (eds): Korea Witness 135 Years of War, Crisis and News in the Land...War & Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War. David McCann & Barry Strauss (eds) (ME Sharpe, 2001) Crazy...Kajiyama Toshiyuki: The Clan Records - Five Stories of Korea (University of Hawaii Press, 1995) A collection of well-translated novellas...
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(Cassell, 1995).
Stern(7,g)
Does what it says on the tin. Testimonies by former comfort women. Don't read this all at once. It's overwhelming.
Related posts:Amnesty International spotlights Comfort Women issue Just received Still waiting for justice after 62 Years Gil...Chris Steele Perkins: Comfort Women photos at the Festival Hall Overlapping nicely with the photographic exhibition at the KCC (Poverty...Keith Howard (ed): Korean Pop Music - riding the wave (Global Oriental, 2006) A very readable introduction to the history...
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Don Oberdorfer: The Two Koreas
17-Apr-06
(Warner, 1998)
Stern(8,g)
Very readable account of post-war history, giving a blow-by-blow account of some of the diplomatic overtures and failures between the two Koreas and the US.
Links:
Buy The Two Koreas at Amazon
Related posts:Harvard Online: The Two Koreas Beginning January 31, students living anywhere in the world can...Paul French: North Korea - the paranoid peninsula (Zed, 2005) Highly readable and wide-ranging book on North Korea....Carter Ekert and others: Korea Old and New Carter J Eckert / Ki-baik Lee / Young Ick Lew...
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(Rowman & Littlefield, 2003)
Stern(6,g)
Varied collection of articles on the subject of Korea's Tiananmen Square incident, ranging from the eyewitness account to academic reassessment. The people of Kwangju: innocent victims or resistance heroes? Discuss.
Links:
Bibliography of the Kwangju Uprising (in English) - at Popular Gusts
Related posts:Kyung Hyun Kim: The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema (first attempt) (Duke, 2004) [Not rated] An intimidatingly academic book. If you’ve...West, Philip and Suh, Ji-moon: Remembering the “forgotten war” The Korean War through Literature and Art (M.E. Sharpe,...That Wonder Girls song - and an antidote This one will be quick. Once again, Matt over at...
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David McCann & Barry Strauss (eds) (ME Sharpe, 2001)
Stern(7,g)
Crazy title, seemingly of limited readership - ancient historians also interested in modern East Asian history (or vice versa). But it's a fascinating collection of articles. "How like Alcibiades was General MacArthur?" asks one article...
Read a grown-up review of this book over at the Korean Studies portal.
Related posts:Donald N Clark: Living Dangerously in Korea (Eastbridge, 2003) Fascinating account of Korea under Japanese colonial rule,...Jahyun Kim Haboush (tr): Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong (California UP, 1995) The style of this takes a bit...Hyangjin Lee: Contemporary Korean Cinema (Manchester UP, 2000) If you can cut through the occasionally...
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(California UP, 1995)
Stern(8,g)
The style of this takes a bit of getting used to (and this is attributable to the original author, not the translator), but the content is gripping. This is the autobiographical writings of a Korean crown princess - wife of the heir to the throne - and documents at first hand the intrigues within the Korean court in the second half of the eighteenth century, and describes the distant and awkward relationship between father and son which leads to the madness and death of the latter (the writer's husband). A fascinating insight into the workings of the Confucian-based civil service system, which may be of interest to Sinologists as well as Koreanists.
Links:
Read a proper review of ...
(Zed, 2005)
Stern(8,g)
Highly readable and wide-ranging book on North Korea. Describes clearly some of the eccentricities of the regime, such as the Sinuiju economic zone, and describes clearly for the benefit of non-economists how it is that a rigid centrally-planned economy is doomed to fail.
Links:
Buy North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula at Amazon
Related posts:Paul French: Chollima Speed to Slow Motion Famine In Cambridge and London this week. First, Tuesday, 29th January,...North Korea - New Approaches Received from Chatham House: North Korea: NEW APPROACHES The 8th...Jane Portal: Art under control in North Korea (Reaction Books / British Museum Press, 2005) An interesting, easy...
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Bruce Cumings: Korea’s Place in the Sun
17-Apr-06
(Norton, 2005)
Stern(10,g)
A real page-turner of a history book. I was so gripped that I read it like a novel, and now need to go back and read it as a history book. Gives a very useful overview of pre-20th century history, but focuses on the more recent history, which it reassesses from a perspective which didn't get much airspace or sympathy at the time of the events in question. Essential reading for understanding contemporary Korea
Related posts:Jane Portal: Korea - Art and Archaeology (British Museum Press, 2000) A well-illustrated book with chapters dealing...Carter Ekert and others: Korea Old and New Carter J Eckert / Ki-baik Lee / Young Ick Lew...Kajiyama Toshiyuki: The Clan Records - Five Stories of ...
(Xlibris 2005)
Stern(1,g)
This is a print-to-order book, rather than one sponsored by a major publishing house. I would have thought that would make it cheaper, but at £14 for a 104 page paperback it's on the pricey side. And Sunoo is a man seriously in need of a proof-reader and editor. Even a standard version of Word might help iron out some of the errors of both spelling and syntax, but maybe he turned off the red and green wiggly lines because they got too distracting. Stylistically, one can make allowances and tolerate a few bits of Konglish, and even enjoy (as a change from the usual polite style to be found in history and literature books) some of the colourful ...