Best south korean history books according to redditors
We found 27 Reddit comments discussing the best south korean history books. We ranked the 17 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 27 Reddit comments discussing the best south korean history books. We ranked the 17 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Joseon era:
I prefer the 'Review' more, but it might come across as a little dry. I feel that it does a fair job of discussing a number of topics related to the creation and running of the Joseon Dynasty, breaking the dynasty up into smaller components and then focusing on some areas (arts, military, cultural practices) within those smaller time frames. 'Sources' for me came across as more academic than 'Review' but you might enjoy it more. 'Sources' includes translations of primary sources, which is helpful, while 'Review' includes images such as paintings and maps.
General:
A comic book that goes into the 'making' of Korea and Korean culture. I have some reservations about this one but if you don't take it too seriously it can be a fun and easy way to get introduced to a number of topics related to Korea.
'Modern' Korea:
Lankov's book is a collection of newspaper articles he wrote entertaining subjects like the story of Korea's first automobiles, the introduction of the first telephones, etc. Easy to digest and they offer a glimpse of what society was like at each point in time; not a 'serious' book on Korean history, though. Neff's book was a chore to get through and it felt like no editing had gone into the book before publishing. If I'm not mistaken this also started out as a series of articles for one of the local newspapers; the transition from article to book did not go quite as well.
It's probably been 10 years since I read the books from Breen, Oberdorfer and Cummings, which makes it a little difficult to write a lot about them. Cummings I know gets criticized for being pro-North Korea in his writing, so that's something to keep in mind, while Oberdorfer I think was a correspondent living in Korea so may have a more 'eyewitness' approach to some of the events. Bird's book is a description of her travels in Korea during the Joseon period and I remember it being an interesting read. Not a balanced historical account by any means - and it obviously suffers from being written from an outside perspective at a time when ethnocentrism was more prevalent - but it may be an alternative to consider. You should be able to find a .pdf copy of that one online.
Haven't read this one, but I've seen others mention it in the past. It's another first-person account from Korea at the cusp of the 20th century, this time from the perspective of a medical missionary. Again, not an objective history book, but if you prefer first-person narratives it may at least be worth a look. A .pdf copy has been published online, this one by the University of Oregon.
Edit: One I forgot to mention, but which I've also heard is used in some English-language classes on Korean history/studies:
So the broader history book is A New History of Korea and starts very very far back. It will provide a general overview of Korean history. As for modern history if you don't know much about Korea's modern history a good place to start is Korea's 20th Century Odyssey. It starts in around the 1890s and if I remember correctly ends with the democracy movements of the 1980s. It very clearly divides the different periods of Korea's 20th century experience e.g. the colonial period, the war and the Park Chung-Hee regime. It is a very good starting point. If you want to have a deeper understanding of the colonial period there are two books I would recommend, the first being Colonial Modernity in Korea which covers a lot of the developments in Korea during the colonial period. Another book I want to recommend is Under the Black Umbrella which is a collection of first hand experiences and stories of people who lived during the colonial period. As for the Park Chung-Hee period there are two suggestions I have but they mostly focus more on economic policy and development. The first book is Korea's Development Under Park Chung-Hee and the second book is Reassessing the Park Chung-Hee Era. Both are pretty high in economic content but the second book does also have a lot of content focusing on political developments. If you read a few of these you will have a good understanding of Korean modern history.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_uprising
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/171123.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_Uprising
https://twitter.com/bethuneist/status/956690454489186304?s=21
https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Traitors-Empires-Struggle-Freedom/dp/1771861355
Generally non government sources place the number killed near 2000.
Asia's unknown uprising is a decent source for English information about South Korea during the period
https://www.amazon.com/Asias-Uprisings-Korean-Movements-Century/dp/1604864575
Also recommend "A History of Korea:From Antiquity to the Present" by Michael J. Seth.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Korea-Antiquity-Present/dp/0742567168/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1474510319&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+j+seth
A New History of Korea by Ki-Baik Lee has been my favorite introduction to Korea and Korean history to date. It is missing modern (post 1960) history, so you'll need to supplement it, but it is otherwise great.
Here are my recommendations for readings on Korean history. The list is somewhat heavy on Chosŏn (1392-1910) history mainly because it is my main research interest. If you are interested on more readings on Chosŏn history, feel free to shoot me a message.
Textbook Histories
Academic Monographs
Primary Sources
Korea's place in the sun by Bruce Cummings and Korea's 20th century Odyssey by Michael Robinson are both good overviews of modern Korean history starting in the late 19th century.
Sources of Korean tradition is a good collection of primary sources with background and analysis.
This is a list that I saved (from reddit a while back. I wish I could give credit to the original poster, but the person who posted it also quoted the list. So whoever compiled this list. KUDOS! I wish I could give you credit:
>So the broader history book is A New History of Korea and starts very very far back. It will provide a general overview of Korean history. As for modern history if you don't know much about Korea's modern history a good place to start is Korea's 20th Century Odyssey. It starts in around the 1890s and if I remember correctly ends with the democracy movements of the 1980s. It very clearly divides the different periods of Korea's 20th century experience e.g. the colonial period, the war and the Park Chung-Hee regime. It is a very good starting point. If you want to have a deeper understanding of the colonial period there are two books I would recommend, the first being Colonial Modernity in Korea which covers a lot of the developments in Korea during the colonial period. Another book I want to recommend is Under the Black Umbrella which is a collection of first hand experiences and stories of people who lived during the colonial period. As for the Park Chung-Hee period there are two suggestions I have but they mostly focus more on economic policy and development. The first book is Korea's Development Under Park Chung-Hee and the second book is Reassessing the Park Chung-Hee Era. Both are pretty high in economic content but the second book does also have a lot of content focusing on political developments. If you read a few of these you will have a good understanding of Korean modern history.
For a general Korea reference and read there is alway the "dictionary" types of books like "Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary" (google books link with preview)
however they can be a bit limited, thankfully there is "The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty" however, the vast majority doesn't have official english translation available. Though the first part does have a translation in "The Annals of King T'aejo: Founder of Korea’s Chosŏn Dynasty" available from amazon (cheaper) or Harvard Uni. Press and if you ever wanted to learn Korean here's the whole of the annals in Korean (all 1,893 volumes), they are in the process of a complete translation (started in 2012) though it won't be done until the 2030s because of the sheer volume to translate.
Spirit of the Mountain, by David Mason. It's about the mountain spirit, Sanshin, who just has all this cool mythology around him as part of traditional Korean 무속. His website is here.
I'd also recommed Korea: A religious History, and Myths and Legends from Korea, both of which are written by James Grayson, who I promise is unparalleled by anyone when it comes to this subject.
Koreans right now? I'd be hard pressed to find someone in my vicinity to openly profess a nostalgic desire for uh... Let's call it reintegration, but yes, during the colonial period ([1910-1945] and the decades immediately before) there were many who throughout the course of Colonization that either 1) professed loyalty to the empire or 2) believed in a (retrospectively Ill-conceived) pan-Asian unity. Since I'm no longer as familiar with outright collaborators I'll just deal with the latter.
As an example, the first modern novel '무정/Heartless' was written by Lee Kwangsu. In Korean historiography he is viewed in several ways. National history courses may just leave it at that but depending on who you speak with he's either a collaborator or, a 'cultural nationalist.' That is to say as a cultural nationalist, he and other like minded individuals fell short in demanding sovereignty or even autonomy for that matter and pushed for at least recognition for Koreans in partnership with the Japanese.
Lee however was caught up in the idea of a 'New Rome' in the East. This is important since ideas of pan-Asian solidarity (not to be confused with the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere) were in contention with aggregate nationalist waves of thought. Instead of Korean or Japanese state, the idea of 'Daito/Daedong' or The Great East was tinged with social Darwinist conceptions of human division. The New Rome Lee envisioned was a grand struggle among the races of the world, and using Japan as a vehicle, Koreans would survive.
This lineage of thought is further tracked back to Sin Chaeho and even further back to Liang Qichao in China.
And..even the famous (in Korea at least) assassin of one colonial governor-General Ito Hirobumi. Yes, Ahn Joongun was not a nationalist by any definition. He was claimed in nationalist historiography to be a one dimensional nationalist but acted as he did because of sense of betrayal of the pan-Asian dream by Japanese particularism. You can read or Google this from Ahn's 아지아 평화론/동맹설(I don't remember, it's been a while).
Can write more but getting tired. If you're interested read Andre Scmid's "Korea Between Empires" or articles by Tikhanov on Korean pan-asianists.
BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Korea-Between-Empires-Andre-Schmid/dp/0231125399
REVIEW OF BOOK:
" A groundbreaking and border-crossing work in modern Korean intellectual history. A dazzling combination of rich textual analysis, sustained argument engaging the latest historiography and theoretical literature, and limpid, elegant prose, it lays bare the genealogy of twentieth-century Korean nationalist identity and consciousness and challenges the embedded colonizer/colonized binary of much previous scholarship by situating that genealogy in a universalizing discourse which simultaneously embraced both Korea and Japan.
(Cater Eckert, Harvard University) "
https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Traitors-Empires-Struggle-Freedom/dp/1771861355
Book recommendation.
Among other reasons, during the late 1800's Japan and China began competing fiercely for influence over Korea. There were pro-Japanese coups which were overturned by Chinese troops.
A rebellion in Korea in 1894 provided Japan and China with the excuse to send troops to Korea.
On July 25, 1894 Japanese ships attacked and sunk Chinese troop transports heading to Korea. The first Sino-Japanese war was brief and was a total humiliating defeat for the Chinese. As you can imagine, this did not endue them to the Japanese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War
For their part the Japanese were thoroughly interested in modernizing and copying the success of the West Which put them at odds with conservative, anti-western factions (to simplify) in China and Korea.
It also meant that they viewed imperial conquest as a legitimate tool of foreign policy. Imperial conquest was very much in vogue then and just as the Europeans claimed to be acting in the best interests of the Africans the Japanese claimed to be acting in the best interests of the Koreans and Chinese.
The Europeans and Americans agreed and generally viewed Japan's rise to power favorably, (failing to condemn even the 1931 invasion of Manchuria) many other people in Asia did not.
Source: [Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea] (http://www.amazon.com/Everlasting-Flower-A-History-Korea/dp/1861893353)
> Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean
This is a lie, Hangul was even taught in schools, Hangul was previously banned before Japanese rule
https://0x0.st/zoPk.jpg
>During the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, outraged South Koreans demanded an apology from NBC after a commentatorasserted that Korea’s transformation into a global powerhouse was due to the “cultural, technological and economic example” of Japan. For many South Koreans, analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo’s statement reopened old wounds—ones carved by a generation of occupation of the country by Japan.
Except he's factually correct, Japan improved quality of life, average life expectancy, education, infrastructure and much more.
Korea didn't even have a money system before Japan they used barter and they were one of the poorest countries
>Any reasonable person familiar with the history of Japanese imperialism, and the atrocities it committed before and during WWII, would find such a statement deeply hurtful and outrageous
Any person familiar with the history of Korea know it is factually correct.
>Schools and universities forbade speaking Korean
Again this is false and there is 0 evidence of this
Literacy rates of Korean in Korean language was only 10% at the beginning of Japanese rule, at the end of Japanese rule it was 65%, it's only 75% now.
Source https://web.archive.org/web/20131012205335im_/http://img.hani.co.kr/section-kisa/2003/10/08/00500000012003100801065086.jpg
>they chopped down trees by the millions and planted non-native species
this is false
while japan did increase the forest industry by 2.57 times they also reforested lots of land, 50x more land was forested than before japanese rule
source: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0710308124/qid=1119366127/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1383104-7833623?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4334006345/250-4809497-4372253
https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4898272398/qid=1126632976/250-4809497-4372253
>That's why they still have very good relations to these days.
You realise the CIA were interfering in Phillipines elections so that it would become a Pro US country?
https://www.manilatimes.net/how-cia-has-been-meddling-in-philippine-presidential-elections/263363/
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/filipinas/doc/cia.html
>Guam is basically a military base. Like the native population is smaller than the military personal stationed there.
because of the us invading and oppressing the natives
>The Bikini Atoll has 5 people living there.
I'm sure they appreciate the radiation
>Puerto Rico tries to become a State. You're describing one small fringe movement.
It wasn't fringe many Puerto Ricans wanted Independence, they even voted for it but were denied it.
>The US never colonized
Right I forgot Americans were the native settlers of America.
>,no slaves, no cultural genocide etc.
hahahahaahahahahahahhahahahaa
>What kind of twisted Logic is that? So it's the US fault that people died in a war that was caused by the Japanese?
You were the one using that dumb logic, if it's Tojo's faulted for ordering Pearl harbour it is America's fault for making Japan open it's borders leading to the Meiji restoration
>The Railway Incident has been proven to be staged to allow Japan to justify the war.
That was in 1931, the Sino-Japanese started in 1937 after Chinese attacked japanese settlements in Shanghai.
New Village is quite an interesting read. This text is dense but I read it for my Asian studies course and it's a good touchstone piece where you can start to learn about modern Korean development. They take more of a biographical approach as opposed to an economic one but those are the only two texts I've read on the topic but they form a good baseline level of understanding in regards to post-War Korean advancement.
I recommend this one if you're looking for a broad perspective: http://www.amazon.com/History-Greenwood-Histories-Modern-Nations/dp/0313332967/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1377734467&sr=8-9&keywords=korean+history
I'm almost ordering the Michael J Seth one, but he did a revised edition called A Concise History of Korea. Thinking in buy this one instead. After read some pieces of China and Japan history, I want to learn about Korea's too.
>【p.203】 The number of students in the schools enumerated in the foregoing table has increased between 1911 and 1924 from 110,789 to 542,679, the greatest increase being in the number attending the Common Schools, which rose from 20,121 to 361,710 (almost entierly Korean children), and the Elementary Schools, which rose from 15,509 to 56,049 (almost entirely Japanese children). The above figures do not include the pupils in two classes of institutions―Kindergartens, and Sohtang. The number of Children in the former increased from 141,604 to 256,851. The Sohtang are elementary private schools conducted by Koreans, in which little is taught except the Chinese classics and brush writing.
>【p.208】 The personnel and office expenses for educational administration and incorporated in the expenditure of the central and are met by the State Treasury. Apart from the items refferd to above, the educational expenditure is met by the Goverment-General, and by three classes of Public Corporations, viz., provinancial bodies, District Educational bodies, and School Asociations.
http://raskb.com/udenlibrary/disk4/308.pdf
Population of Korea in 1910 (Prior to Japanese annexation) 13 Million
Population of Korea in 1945 (End of Japanese occupation) 26 million
Average salary in Korea in 1910, 58 yen
Average salary in Korea in 1938 119 yen
Average yearly GDP growth of Korea over total annexation period, 4%
In 1944 Korea had a 61% enrollment rate, prior to this it was less than 1%
Average life span went from 26 to 42
Sources: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0710308124/qid=1119366127/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1383104-7833623?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4334006345/250-4809497-4372253
https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4898272398/qid=1126632976?redirect=true