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doublejeopardy
Joined: 16 Jan 2006
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 Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:42 am Post subject: Korean history books-recommendations? |
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Has anyone read any books on Korean history they can recommend? (the search function is still not working  all I get is a blank page, not even a 'no results found'.) Anyway, I am specifically interested in pre-korean war history. Anything anyone found particularly good? or bad, so I can avoid it?
Thanks |
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Njord
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:00 am Post subject: |
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I'm sorry I can't help with ancient Korean history. Actually, I would also be interested in advice on a good history book.
However, for modern Korean history (mid 1800's to present) I strongly recommend Korea's Place in the Sun by Bruce Cumings. It is an interesting read and presents a balanced take on some of the more controversial topics. At the time I was more interested in the post-war period, but I remember that the rest of the book was good enough for me to not skim past it. I read it for a political science class taught by his wife Jung-en Woo or Meredith Woo-Cumings. (Her published work is mostly in political economy and probably of little interest to you.) |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:48 am Post subject: |
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| It is an interesting read and presents a balanced take |
It certainly is not balanced. If you do read Cummings book, make sure you read 'Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader' by Bradley Martin, for a less sympathetic look at the politics of North Korea. The Aquariums of Pyongyang is moving tale of the horrors of the North Korean gulag. Something which Cummings barely mentions in his horribly biased account. |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:52 am Post subject: |
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| A New History Of Korea by Ki-baik Lee is one of the best. Translated by Edward W. Wagner You can find it most of the big book shops in Seoul. |
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Njord
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:32 am Post subject: |
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| bigverne wrote: |
| It certainly is not balanced. If you do read Cummings book, make sure you read 'Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader' by Bradley Martin, for a less sympathetic look at the politics of North Korea. The Aquariums of Pyongyang is moving tale of the horrors of the North Korean gulag. Something which Cummings barely mentions in his horribly biased account. |
Well, of course this all depends on your perspective. The book is undoubtatly pro-Korean in that Cumings (his name has only one "m") displays a transparent respect for Korean culture and history. The book is also somewhat unusual in its strong condemnation of the Japanese occupation and the discussion of the American occupation. He certainly pulls no punches with respect to Syngman Rhee. In many ways, the Korean occupation is a better analogy to Iraq than Vietnam, but that's another issue.
I don't agree with you that he is sympathetic to North Korea. The impression that you get from his book is of a deeply repressive and cruel regime. On the other hand, he does argue that there is a certain logic to the North Korean system (as there must be for it to survive), that it did not act as part of a monolithic Soviet bloc, that it indeed has peculiar Korean characteristics that separate it from other communist states, and that its foreign policy is largely rational and not insane. Of course, none of this takes anything away from the manifest cruelty and illegality of the North Korean government and much of what it does. But one hardly need read a book to know this. Cumings does somewhat play down the extent of the famine but the view that initial estimates of deaths (from news reports and humanitarian organizations) were too high is not particular or original to him. I suppose if Cumings had turned his book into a catalogue of attrocities you might have liked it better, but that would hardly be more accurate or interesting. |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:12 am Post subject: |
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| "Living Dangerously In Korea...the Western Experience 1900-1950" by Donald N. Clark sounds like what you're looking for. Granted, it talks a lot about Protestant missionaries, but it's a great read. So many times I've said "Ah!! So THAT'S why......" |
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bignate
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Location: Hell's Ditch
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:03 am Post subject: |
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| bigverne wrote: |
It certainly is not balanced. If you do read Cummings book, make sure you read 'Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader' by Bradley Martin, for a less sympathetic look at the politics of North Korea. |
I agree the Martin Book is excellent.....and he often sites Cumings to back up his positions.....
Here are some of the positions that he backs up quite well infact:
The paralells he draws between the Korean and Vietnam Wars and how the US was more interested in it's own agenda and interests than those of the Korean People...how "non-intervention would have brought welcome consequences" to Korea. That "the political price that Koreans have paid for the American intervention has been autocracy throughout the peninsula based upon the mutual fears of the two governments." (p 134)
Where he describes the North Korean regime as being more selfless than the South in it's treatment of disabled and handicapped people that through his interviews with previous citizens he puts forth the conclusion that the internal welfare system up until the food shortages of 1985 was quite concilliatory to handicapped people....(p 384-85)
Where he uses evidence gathered through interviews with defectors to show that the worst fear scenario about the concentration camps was infact false, and that the widespread starvation of political prisoners was not in effect to the levels touted in much of the Western Media (p. 566-67)
Particularly near the end of the book where he commends KJI for changing his policies to make the Korean regime more open, finding it comparably more progressive than the Russian and Chinese examples of controled market system. Siteing the anecdotale evidence of various NGOs he gives evidence showing that the changing climate in the North was giving rise to a new middle class that was essentially being ignored by the Western Media...(p 658)
Or when he ridicules the Bush administration for being so filled with hubris that they were blindly trying to take the regime out and make it collapse, without ever noticing said changes....How if left to its devices with containment and passive intervention, the regime would change and evolve...(p.659, 676-677)
Or his personal opinion of KJI: "Missing in the accounts by those who demonized Kim wasn any hint that there might be two sides to the story. Surely there are unrelievedly evil people...I could not fit the real Kim Jong-Il comfortably into the role of total monster..." A despot perhaps, incompetant in regards to running an isolated economy transfixed by the fear of US intervention. (p. 679)
How the negotiators of Western Nations, if they were to only try to understand the system of face saving in Confucian traditions, there may be a possible non-violent solution to the crisis on the peninsula... that "if they showed respect rather than hostile contempt" then Kim could be lead into successful negotiations. (p 682)
Again I agree an awesome book....
Last edited by bignate on Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:27 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Big Mac
Joined: 17 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:22 am Post subject: |
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There is a book callled "The Koreans : Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies" by a British journalist called Michael Breen. It's a good overview of recent Korean history. It's written from a foreigner's perspective though...which can be helpful at the same time as it is problematic.
In Seoul you can buy it in the English section at the Kyobo bookstore at the Gwangwhamun subway station or at Bandi & Lundi's in the Coex Mall. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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London10
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:16 am Post subject: |
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The best book there is...written by the folks at Harvard.
Korea Old and New A History, (2002), Ki-baik Lee, Carter Eckert, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson, and Edward Wagner
Available from
http://www.seoulselection.com/shopping_book_view.html?pid=77
Near US embassy if you are in / near Seoul. Check out website for address. If not near Seoul you can order online. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:00 am Post subject: |
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| The Two Koreas, by Don Oberdorfer. |
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bignate
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Location: Hell's Ditch
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:25 am Post subject: |
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| Roy E. Appleman's SOUTH TO THE NAKTONG, NORTH TO THE YALU is online as well, a really good study of the military operations of the US Army during the retreat to the Pusan Perimeter, the Landing at Incheon, the UN counteroffensive, and the movement to the Yalu River on the Chinese Border......very detailed, it would probably only be of interest to people interested in military history...I have an original copy and the fold out maps are spectacular... |
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gochubandit
Joined: 29 Jul 2004
Location: under your bed... with a marker
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| It certainly is not balanced. If you do read Cummings book, make sure you read 'Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader' by Bradley Martin, for a less sympathetic look at the politics of North Korea. The Aquariums of Pyongyang is moving tale of the horrors of the North Korean gulag. Something which Cummings barely mentions in his horribly biased account. |
i beg to differ. he does mention the book in "North Korea: Another Country" and he points out a very less obvious perspective on North Korean life that most wouldn't have picked up on. try reading that one. |
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Blue Cheer
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: Rooster Forest
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| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:07 am Post subject: Korean History Info |
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Here are some of the books I've read that have been more than a little helpful in helping me come to grips with Korean history;
James Palais, Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea
Peter Duus, The Abacus and the Sword
Carter Eckert, Offspring of Empire
Martina Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation of Korea
Isabella Bird, Korea and Her Neighbours
F.A Mackenzie, Korea's Fight for Freedom
There are countless more but I can't remember them at the top of my head. If you live in Seoul then you've got a good head start in your historical studies. I love Seoul Selection and Bandi and Lundis. "What the Book" is great too! Somehow Chris can get a hold of almost anything you want (unless it is out of print). Thank you Chris!! If you want to have some fun pick up a few general histories written by Korean nationalists in the 1970s or early 80's. Reading them is almost as enjoyable as watching Monty Python's "The Holy Grail." Not as amusing as those written by right wing life haters, but enjoyable nonetheless.
There are also some great websites where you can download articles dealing with all aspects of Korea past and present;
www.eKoreajournal.net (Korea Journal)
www.review.aks.ac.kr (Review of Korean Studies)
And then you can check out www.koreaweb.ws. There's tonnes of stuff here from general academic discussions to book reviews. The book reviews are really helpful. After you get into that why don't you go to some of the lectures sponsored by the Royal Asiatic Society (Korea Branch)?There's usually one or two (free) lectures every month. The website is www.raskb.com. They also have an extensive list of books about Korea. I haven't been to their office yet, but hope to go soon.
Wouldn't it be nice if we learned more about Korea and Koreans learned more about us? I think so.
[/u] |
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doublejeopardy
Joined: 16 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:17 am Post subject: |
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Thank you all for the suggestions. I will have to take a list with me to the bookstore...after payday  |
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