Asian Trips - Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History
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List Price: $20.60
www.asiantrips.info Price: $15.11
Your Save: $ 5.49 ( 27% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.903
EAN: 9780393316810
ISBN: 0393316815
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 527
Publication Date: 1998-02
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
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Editorial Reviews:
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In his "immensely illuminating and accessible history" (Kirkus Reviews), Bruce Cumings delivers a memorable narrative of Korea's fractured modern history. Beginning with an overview of the cultural and political traditions of this accomplished civilization, Cumings dwells on Korea's long twentieth century, a period of colonial exploitation by Japan, war, and national division. His chapters on the Korean War show clearly just how close the world came to a nuclear holocaust. He then explores the economic resurgence and political turmoil that keep Korea in the headlines. Finally, he traces the significance of the Korean migration to the United States. "A leading American authority on modern Korea... catches the excitement of a country that has been at the peaks and troughs of East Asian history in the twentieth century". -- Economist -- "An elegantly informative account of Korea's convulsive transformation ... into a nation". -- Kirkus Monthly
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great work
Comment: Cuming's work is amazing! I used it for a research project on Korea and out of the 30 books on Korea Cuming's work was the most useful. Very neutral in the information and very detailed. I HIGHLY RECOMEND THIS BOOK!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A different drum
Comment: I found this book very engrossing and educational. Vast majority of Korean history books do not include how foreign countries actions/lack of actions affected Korea's history. For example, the U.S. Cumings may sound anti-American, but when parts of history is revealed/told that isn't often heard it can seem rather harsh to those who aren't use to it. What I really liked about his writing was that he revealed the short-comings of every country involved, including Korea itself. Korea's turbulant history is very complex and yet most think it's pretty straight forward. This book makes you think outside the box.
I would suggest this book to those who want to learn about the other facets of Korea's history other than the standard and REALLY learn about Korea and its people.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Korean History and Personal Opinion
Comment: Being married to a Korean lady, and having been to Korea six times since 1980, I read this book with interest. I also worked in Korea on an AID mission to assist two university science departments at Seoul National University develop into international graduate program status. Thus because of my trips, and having lived there, I read the book with more than routine interest. Because of these visits, I have read other books on Korean History also and travelled throughout SOuth Korea many times and seeing the historical monuments.
I found that this book sumamrized historical events fairly well, and found no inconsistencies with other books I had read. What was disturbing and disappointing to me was that Cumings mixes historical facts with his personal interpretations and opinions. If this was a true excercise in scholarly history, these should have been separated, labelled and properly disclosed.
My second disappointment was the Anti-American tone of the book. Yes, It is true that Kroea suffered during the Korean War, and part of that suffering was from military and US state department blunders. However, in my experience, the Koreans I have come to know are grateful to the USA for having saved them from the fate of living in a reclusive, communistic, totalitarian state and have not forgotten it. That includes a large number of younger people I have met there.
In short, this book is part history and part OP ED writing. As a work of scholarship it flunks the test of objectivity and separation and disclosure of historical fact from personal opinion/interpretation. Hence, I rate it a "2"
Customer Rating:
Summary: Flawed
Comment: Bruce Cumings writes well, and that's what makes this book an interesting read. It discusses in detail the events of the late 19th century, which are absolutely critical to understanding why Korea is what it is today.
The book, however, is marred by some simply unbelievable passages regarding North Korea. For example, at the end, contrasting the generous welfare state provisions of the former West Germany with the less than generous benefits offered by the South Korean state, Cumings writes that "North Korean citizens can look forward to little or none of this in union with the South, but instead to the longest hours of labor in the industrial world on terms that South Korean firms would set."
Yes, Mr. Cumings, but they can also look forward to living in a free political environment and speaking their minds without running the risk of being shipped off to the Gulag. Mr. Cumings wrote the above sentence in 1997, but even at that time it was already well known what a disaster of a nation North Korea had become.
Almost all people who pay attention to the subject now agree that there is only one legitimate government on the Korean Peninsula, and that government is in Seoul. I'm sure North Koreans will gladly put in long hours at the factory in a reunified nation where liberty and democracy prevail.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My pillow loves this book.
Comment: It loves it because every time I go to read it my pillow gets used when I fall asleep. This book has a couple of parts that are interesting, but mostly it is boring political views. If you don't have a passion for East Asia, do not read this book; it is like pulling teeth.
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