Best South Korean History Books
Here you will get Best South Korean History Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea
Author: by Hyeonseo Lee
Published at: William Collins; Reprint edition (May 10, 2016)
ISBN: 978-0007554850
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAn extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most ruthless and secretive dictatorships and the story of one woman’s terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom. As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime.
Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life.
Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told the best on the planet? Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family.
2. The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World
Author: by Vincent Bevins
Published at: PublicAffairs (May 19, 2020)
ISBN: 978-1541742406
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2020 BY NPR, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, AND GQThe hidden story of the wanton slaughter – in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world – backed by the United States.In 1965, the U.S. Government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians.
This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA’s secret interventions were so successful.
In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe.
For decades, it’s been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S. Led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington’s final triumph in the Cold War.
3. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
Author: by Yeonmi Park
Published at: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (September 27, 2016)
ISBN: 978-0143109747
I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea. Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape.
Park’s family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea was brutal, practically medieval. Park would regularly go without food and was made to believe that, Kim Jong Il, the country’s dictator, could read her mind. After her father was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for trading on the black-market, a risk he took in order to provide for his wife and two young daughters, Yeonmi and her family were branded as criminals and forced to the cruel margins of North Korean society.
With thirteen-year-old Park suffering from a botched appendectomy and weighing a mere sixty pounds, she and her mother were smuggled across the border into China. I wasn’t dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. I didn’t even know what it meant to be free.
4. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Author: by Barbara Demick
Published at: Random House; Reprint edition (September 21, 2010)
ISBN: 978-0385523912
An eye-opening account of life inside North Koreaa closed world of increasing global importancehailed as a tour de force of meticulous reporting (The New York Review of Books) NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen yearsa chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime todayan Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them.
5. How Asia Works
Author: by Joe Studwell
Published at: Grove Press (May 20, 2014)
ISBN: 978-0802121325
Named by Bill Gates as one of his Top 5 Books of the YearAn Economist Best Book of the YearIn the 1980s and 1990s many in the West came to believe in the myth of an East-Asian economic miracle, with countries seen as not just development prodigies but as a unified bloc, culturally and economically similar, and inexorably on the rise.
In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell distills extensive research into the economics of nine countriesJapan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Chinainto an accessible, readable narrative that debunks Western misconceptions, shows what really happened in Asia and why, and for once makes clear why some countries have boomed while others have languished.
Impressive in scope, How Asia Works is essential reading for anyone interested in a region that will shape the future of the world.
6. The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (New Press People's History)
Author: by Vijay Prashad
Published at: The New Press; Reprint edition (April 29, 2008)
ISBN: 978-1595583420
Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movementthe idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the world’s impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II.
Spanning every continent of the global South, Vijay Prashad’s fascinating narrative takes us from the birth of postcolonial nations after World War II to the downfall and corruption of nationalist regimes. A breakthrough book of cutting-edge scholarship, it includes vivid portraits of Third World giants like India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser, and Indonesia’s Sukarnoas well as scores of extraordinary but now-forgotten intellectuals, artists, and freedom fighters.
The Darker Nations restores to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World, whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced a much impoverished international political arena.
7. Korean Culture Dictionary: From Kimchi To K-Pop And K-Drama Clichés. Everything About Korea Explained!
Author: by Woosung Kang
Published at: NEW AMPERSAND PUBLISHING (October 13, 2020)
ISBN: 979-1188195602
This book is offered in 3 formats:1. B&W Mass Market Paperback – This item ISBN 97911881956022. Color Paperback – ISBN 97911881956193. Color Hardcover – ISBN 9791188195626Before reading this book, you probably had some moments of curiosity in your life where you questioned certain things about Korean culture.
Why is there a Pepsi logo on the Korean flag? Why do Korean kids in my class only have like three last names (Kim, Lee, Park)? If you are a K-Drama addict, and even took the time to watch variety shows with your favorite idols, your thoughts and interest towards Korea may have grown even deeper!
Maybe, if you’re a Koreaboo, you may wonder why you become a year older as soon as arriving in Korea, why there’s so much drama in those street tent bars, and how Koreans drink so much soju from those green bottles.
And, probably the question on everyone’s mind in 2020, why is BTS so dang popular (honorable mention: What the heck does Gangnam Style mean)? Well, if you get lost in translation, you can simply look up the word in the dictionary, but what if you get lost between cultures and there’s no one to kindly tell you what’s going on?
8. A History of Korea (Macmillan Essential Histories)
Author: by Kyung Moon Hwang
Published at: Springer; 2nd ed. 2017 edition (October 4, 2016)
ISBN: 978-1137573568
This accessible and engaging new edition continues to be one of the leading introductory textbooks on Korean history. Fully revised throughout, the author takes a thematic and chronological approach to guide readers from early state formation and the dynastic eras to the modern experience.
Episodic accounts in each chapter are discussed in context with extensive examination of how the events and themes under consideration have been viewed up to the present day. By discussing recurring themes such as collective identity, external influence, social hierarchy, and family and gender, the author introduces the major historical events, patterns and debates that have shaped both North and South Korea over the past 1500 years.
This textbook is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of history, and those studying Korean or Asian history in particular. The first half of the book covers the pre-20th century era, and the second half the modern era, reflecting the structure of most Korean history courses.
9. Made in North Korea: Graphics From Everyday Life in the DPRK
Author: by Nick Bonner
Published at: Phaidon Press (October 2, 2017)
ISBN: 978-0714873503
North Korea uncensored and unfiltered ordinary life in the world’s most secretive nation, captured in never-before-seen ephemera. Made in North Korea uncovers the fascinating and surprisingly beautiful graphic culture of North Korea – from packaging to hotel brochures, luggage tags to tickets for the world-famous mass games.
From his base in Beijing, Bonner has been running tours into North Korea for over twenty years, and along the way collecting graphic ephemera. He has amassed thousands of items that, as a collection, provide an extraordinary and rare insight into North Korea’s state-controlled graphic output, and the lives of ordinary North Koreans.
10. Korean History in Maps: From Prehistory to the Twenty-First Century
Author: by Lee Injae
Published at: Cambridge University Press; Illustrated edition (December 15, 2014)
ISBN: 978-1107490239
Korean History in Maps is a beautifully presented, full-color atlas covering all periods of Korean history from prehistoric times to the present day. It is the first atlas of its kind to be specifically designed for students in English-speaking countries.
There is a map for each era in Korean history, showing every major kingdom or polity that existed on the Korean peninsula, and maps are also included for topics of additional historical interest, including each major war that took place.
In addition, the atlas contains chronologies, lists of monarchs, and overviews of the politics, economy, society, and culture for each era which are complemented by numerous photos and full color images of artifacts, paintings, and architectural structures. This fascinating historical atlas is a complete reference work and unique teaching tool for all scholars and students of Korean and East Asian history.
11. History of Korea: A Captivating Guide to Korean History, Including Events Such as the Mongol Invasions, the Split into North and South, and the Korean War
Author: by Captivating History
Published at: Captivating History (January 14, 2020)
ISBN: 978-1647483753
If you want to discover the captivating history of Korea, then keep reading… The Korean Peninsula today is divided into two, but there was a time when this peninsula was divided into many states. Over the course of time, and besieged by expansive transient dynasties outside of this modest piece of land, many clans and tribes overran their lands.
Of all those malicious and greedy potential overlords, none managed to prevail. The soil is rich with the blood of the people who made Korea happen, and it is the Korean people who rose victorious among the maelstrom of dead empires led by hated tyrants and wars fought by people in lands far beyond their own.
The Koreans are survivors, known for their persistence and courage. In History of Korea: A Captivating Guide to Korean History, Including Events Such as the Mongol Invasions, the Split into North and South, and the Korean War, you will discover topics such asLand of the BearThe Dragon of the East SeaDynasties Rise and FallThe Joseon Dynasty of GoryeoForeign InvasionsMerchants, Farmers, and ForeignersFrom Independence to AnnexationKorea at WarNorth KoreaSouth KoreaAnd much, much more!
12. Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite
Author: by Suki Kim
Published at: Crown; Illustrated edition (October 13, 2015)
ISBN: 978-0307720665
A haunting account of teaching English to the sons of North Korea’s ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il’s reign Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland.
Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fieldsexcept for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has gone undercover as a missionary and a teacher.
Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them English, all under the watchful eye of the regime. Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleaguesevangelical Christian missionaries who don’t know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn’t share their faith.
14. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
Author: by Guy Delisle
Published at: Drawn and Quarterly; 2nd edition (October 2, 2018)
ISBN: 978-1770463370
The perennial graphic novel about a hermit country, with a new cover and an introduction by Gore VerbinskiGuy Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea is the graphic novel that made his career, an international bestseller for more than ten years.
Delisle became one of the few Westerners to be allowed access to the fortress-like country when he was working in animation for a French company. While living in the nation’s capital for two months on a work visa, Delisle observed everything he was allowed to see of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered, bringing a sardonic and skeptical perspective on a place rife with propaganda.
As a guide to the country, Delisle is a non-believer with a keen eye for the humor and tragedy of dictatorial whims, expressed in looming architecture and tiny, omnipresent photos of the president. The absurd vagaries of everyday life become fodder for a frustrated animator’s musings as boredom and censorship sink in.
Delisle himself is the ideal foil for North Korean spin, the grumpy outsider who brought a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 with him into the totalitarian nation. Pyongyang is an informative, personal, and accessible look at a dangerous and enigmatic country.
15. The Future Is Asian
Author: by Parag Khanna
Published at: Simon & Schuster (February 5, 2019)
ISBN: 978-1501196263
In the 19th century, the world was Europeanized. In the 20th century, it was Americanized. Now, in the 21st century, the world is being Asianized. The Asian Century is even bigger than you think. Far greater than just China, the new Asian system taking shape is a multi-civilizational order spanning Saudi Arabia to Japan, Russia to Australia, Turkey to Indonesialinking five billion people through trade, finance, infrastructure, and diplomatic networks that together represent 40 percent of global GDP.
China has taken a lead in building the new Silk Roads across Asia, but it will not lead it alone. Rather, Asia is rapidly returning to the centuries-old patterns of commerce, conflict, and cultural exchange that thrived long before European colonialism and American dominance.
Asians will determine their own futureand as they collectively assert their interests around the world, they will determine ours as well. There is no more important region of the world for us to better understand than Asia and thus we cannot afford to keep getting Asia so wrong.
