My desire to learn about Korea was strong from an early age. When I was in elementary school in New Jersey, there was only one book about Korea in the local libraries. I remember this vividly since I borrowed it twenty times in a row. Though I was finally able to take courses on Korea in college, there was still much about Korea’s history that was frustratingly inaccessible to me because of the lack of books on the topic. I have devoted at least some of my work to producing books and other materials that will make it easier for younger generations to learn about Korean history.
I co-wrote
Korean History in Maps: From Prehistory to the Twenty-First Century
This book is, quite simply, the best introduction to modern Korean history. Like other similar books, it covers the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, but it also has a helpful chapter that gives an overview of Korea’s premodern history.
What really sets this book apart is its carefully chosen insights on key aspects of modern history that give readers a deeper understanding of current events in Korea.
The book is a pleasure to read thanks to the author’s engaging writing style; it also provides an intellectual thrill because of the author’s questioning of Western assumptions about Korea as well as about the Cold War.
Korea has endured a "fractured, shattered twentieth century," and this updated edition brings Bruce Cumings's leading history of the modern era into the present. The small country, overshadowed in the imperial era, crammed against great powers during the Cold War, and divided and decimated by the Korean War, has recently seen the first real hints of reunification. But positive movements forward are tempered by frustrating steps backward. In the late 1990s South Korea survived its most severe economic crisis since the Korean War, forcing a successful restructuring of its political economy. Suffering through floods, droughts, and a famine that cost…
It is fortunate that this book is among the growing number of Korean novels that have been translated into English. I think this is the best book at capturing the historical experience of Koreans in the twentieth century.
Cho Chong-Rae, one of South Korea’s foremost novelists, has a particular genius for depicting how the lives of complex and compelling characters were impacted by the turbulent events of Korean history.
The book is especially memorable because of its main character–a communist peasant who adopts a new identity during the Korean War and becomes a successful businessman in the South. By doing this, the novel shows that the division of the country is not just political but has also split the collective psyche of the Korean people.
In this work, the smoldering hatred of the Korean War period resurfaces decades later in the form of a ruthless quest for justice. The main character, a successful Seoul businessman, has a secret past: unknown to his wife and son, he once led another life under another name as a ruthless communist partisan. After a lifelong search, the son of one of his wartime victims discovers his true identity, then proceeds calmly and deliberately to exact a terrible revenge.
Park Wan-suh is perhaps postwar fiction's foremost chronicler of women’s lives. Of the many translations of her novels and short stories, I think this book is the best to start with.
A mixture of autobiography with fictional and essay-like elements, it covers the first twenty years of her life, from her early years in the countryside outside the city of Gaeseong to her family’s move to Seoul and the outbreak of the Korean War.
There is much to learn about modern Korea from this unique generation of writers as they experienced life during the Japanese occupation, had clear memories of what Korea was like before its division, and directly witnessed the horrors of the Korean War.
Park Wan-suh is a best-selling and award-winning writer whose work has been widely translated and published throughout the world. Who Ate Up All the Shinga? is an extraordinary account of her experiences growing up during the Japanese occupation of Korea and the Korean War, a time of great oppression, deprivation, and social and political instability.
Park Wan-suh was born in 1931 in a small village near Kaesong, a protected hamlet of no more than twenty families. Park was raised believing that "no matter how many hills and brooks you crossed, the whole world was Korea and everyone in it was…
This book is a true rarity. Written by the journalist Helen Foster Snow (using a pseudonym), it recorded the life story of a Korean communist working in the Chinese communist movement–the result of their chance encounter in Yan’an.
It provides an intimate view of his conversion to communism, his involvement in some of the major struggles between Chinese communists and nationalists, and his time in Chinese prisons. What emerges is a compelling portrait of an intelligent and well-read man who is open about his life and willing to be self-critical–a portrait that upsets many preconceptions of what a communist is like.
This is essential reading for understanding Korean communism and, by extension, the division of the country.
This book vividly describes the Chinese Revolution and the Korean Independence Movement from the inside, as seen, felt and experienced by a revolutionary who wonders about the meaning of life and shares mankind's urge to set things right in societies where the moral order has been smashed.
In a compound in Yenan, soon after the Japanese onslaught of July 7, 1937, 'Num Wales'Helen Foster Snowtook down the words of 'Kim Sam', the former a young American journalist who knew she was in on one of the scoops of the century, the latter a Korean who has decided to struggle against…
This is the book that I always recommend to anyone who is just getting interested in modern Korea and wants to learn more.
A former Korea correspondent for The Economist, Daniel Tudor displays tremendous range in his command not just of business and the economy but also of politics, religion, and culture. His enthusiasm for exploring Korea is clear, but he is also able to criticize aspects of the country with genuine sensitivity.
If something on the news, in a South Korean TV drama, or in an article piques your curiosity, you can always turn to this book to get more context, get an interesting tidbit from one of Tudor’s interviews with prominent figures, or find ways to go deeper into the topic.
Daniel Tudor covers all the important issues, yet does not simply tell the more familiar stories, but looks deeper and wider to give the full story of Korea today. Martin Uden, Former British Ambassador to South Korea. In just fifty years, South Korea has transformed itself from a failed state, ruined and partitioned by war and decades of colonial rule, into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. How was it able to achieve this with no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule? Who are the Koreans and how did they…
My book is a full-color atlas covering all periods of Korean history from prehistoric times to the present day. There are maps for every major kingdom or polity that existed on the Korean peninsula as well as for topics of additional historical interest, including ones for capital cities and every major war.
The atlas contains chronologies, lists of monarchs, and overviews of the politics, economy, society, and culture of each era, which are complemented by numerous photos and full-color images of artifacts, paintings, and architectural structures. It is a complete reference work for anyone with an interest in Korean history.
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.
The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…
