From the publisher’s website: The United States and Biological Warfare argues persuasively that the United States experimented with and deployed biological weapons during the Korean War. Endicott and Hagerman explore the political and moral dimensions of this issue, asking what restraints were applied or forgotten in those years of ideological and political passion and military … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 56)
The Imjin and Kapyong Battles, Korea, 1951
From the publisher’s website: The sacrifice of the “Glorious Glosters” in defense of the Imjin River line and the hilltop fights of Australian and Canadian battalions in the Kapyong Valley have achieved greater renown in those nations than any other military action since World War II. This book is the first to compare in depth … [Read More]
A History of Korea: From “Land of the Morning Calm” to States in Conflict
From the publisher’s website: Contemporary North and South Korea are nations of radical contrasts: one a bellicose totalitarian state with a failing economy; the other a peaceful democracy with a strong economy. Yet their people share a common history that extends back more than 3,000 years. In this comprehensive new history of Korea from the … [Read More]
China’s Battle for Korea: The 1951 Spring Offensive
From the publisher’s website: Between November 1950 and the end of fighting in June 1953, China launched six major offensives against UN forces in Korea. The most important of these began on April 22, 1951, and was the largest Communist military operation of the war. The UN forces put up a strong defense, prevented the … [Read More]
Contemporary Korean Shamanism: From Ritual to Digital
From the publisher’s website: Once viewed as an embarrassing superstition, the theatrical religious performances of Korean shamans—who communicate with the dead, divine the future, and become possessed—are going mainstream. Attitudes toward Korean shamanism are changing as shamanic traditions appear in staged rituals, museums, films, and television programs, as well as on the internet. Contemporary Korean … [Read More]
Making We the People: Democratic Constitutional Founding in Postwar Japan and South Korea
From the publisher’s website: What does it mean to say that it is ‘We the People’ who ‘ordain and establish’ a constitution? Who are those sovereign people, and how can they do so? Interweaving history and theory, constitutional scholar Chaihark Hahm and political theorist Sung Ho Kim attempt to answer these perennial questions by revisiting … [Read More]
The Constitution of South Korea: A Contextual Analysis
The constitutional system of South Korea is a work in progress, and this volume fleshes out and makes intelligible to foreign readers that process within the specific political and historical context of modern South Korea. The current South Korean Constitution of 1987 is the culmination of decades-long efforts by the South Korean people to achieve … [Read More]
The Societal Codification of Korean English
From the publisher’s website: From K-pop to kimchi, Korean culture is becoming increasingly popular on the world stage. This cultural internationalisation is also mirrored linguistically, in the emergence and development of Korean English. Often referred to as ‘Konglish’, this book describes how the two terms in fact refer to different things and explains how Koreans … [Read More]
The God Susanoo and Korea in Japan’s Cultural Memory: Ancient Myths and Modern Empire
From the publisher’s website: This book discusses how ancient Japanese mythology was utilized during the colonial period to justify the annexation of Korea to Japan, with special focus on the god Susanoo. Described as an ambivalent figure and wanderer between the worlds, Susanoo served as a foil to set off the sun goddess, who played … [Read More]
Justifying Violence on Korea’s Cold War Frontlines: The Life and Representations of Kim Tu-han
The son of a nationalist martyr, Kim Tu-han (1918-1972) rose to prominence as a mobster in 1930s Seoul. As conditions shifted, he deployed his gang first as a construction corps supporting the Japanese war effort, then as a progressive force, and, most successfully, as an anti-communist vigilante group. After narrowly escaping the death sentence for … [Read More]
The Korean Diaspora in Post War Japan: Geopolitics, Identity and Nation-Building
The indistinct status of the Zainichi has meant that, since the late 1940s, two ethnic Korean associations, the Chongryun (pro-North) and the Mindan (pro-South) have been vying for political loyalty from the Zainichi, with both groups initially opposing their assimilation in Japan. Unlike the Korean diasporas living in Russia, China or the US, the Zainichi … [Read More]
The Korean Tradition of Religion, Society, and Ethics: A Comparative and Historical Self-understanding and Looking Beyond
From the publisher’s website: By making Korea a central part of comparative history of East Asian religion and society, this book traces the evolution of Korean religion from the oldest representation to that of the current day by utilizing wide-ranging interdisciplinary and comparative resources. This book presents a holistic view of the enduring religious tradition … [Read More]
A Most Enterprising Country: North Korea in the Global Economy
From the publisher’s website: North Korea has survived the end of the Cold War, massive famine, numerous regional crises, punishing sanctions, and international stigma. In A Most Enterprising Country, Justin V. Hastings explores the puzzle of how the most politically isolated state in the world nonetheless sustains itself in large part by international trade and integration … [Read More]
Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea
From the publisher’s website: Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea deepens the current understanding of online activism and its impacts on society by highlighting how various forms of social movements have been mobilized in Korea. Through exploring movements in Korea such as political participation based on SNS, the 2008 U.S. beef protests, and … [Read More]
Marching Through Suffering: Loss and Survival in North Korea
From the publisher’s website: Marching Through Suffering is a deeply personal portrait of the ravages of famine and totalitarian politics in modern North Korea since the 1990s. Featuring interviews with more than thirty North Koreans who defected to Seoul and Tokyo, the book explores the subjective experience of the nation’s famine and its citizens’ social and … [Read More]
Memory, Reconciliation, and Reunions in South Korea Crossing the Divide
From the publisher’s website: Drawing on reinterpretations of melancholia and collective remembrance, Memory, Reconciliation, and Reunions in South Korea: Crossing the Divide explores the multi-layered implications of divided Korea’s liminality, or its perceived “in-betweenness” in space and time. Offering a timely reconsideration of the pivotal period following the inter-Korean Summit of June 2000, this book focuses on … [Read More]