100 books like Playing with Fire

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.

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.

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 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.

A riveting first-hand account of the war from the buccaneering foreign correspondent of The Observer. Greek-born Deane, who served nobly in the Royal Navy in WW2, was captured by the North Koreans in Seoul in July 1950 and spent the next 33 months in captivity. He vividly chronicles those grim days as a prisoner, enduring torture and surviving the infamous ‘Death March’. There is also a great insight into the character of George Blake, his fellow internee and British spy, who was (unbeknown to Deane) actually recruited by the KGB in their period of incarceration.

This book is a detailed account of the fighting at Pork Chop Hill, aka Hill 255. It was aptly named because on the topographical map it resembled a pork chop. They call this the forgotten war. It is a gritty, blow-by-blow, extremely detailed account of the battle in April 1953. This book describes the incredible feat of bravery and heroism by the men of the 7th Infantry Division. Pork Chop Hill was not the only place of the combat as Old Baldy, Hill 266, was a short distance away.

This is a heart-wrenching novel about hunger and starvation in the early 1950s in a Southern China village. The book title implies the joy of harvest, which has a rhetorical effect as it runs counter to the book theme. Its metaphor for hunger is watery gruel that the rural poor eat for every meal as they slowly starve. The story is about the impending great famine after the Communist Party introduces the land reform policies and how villagers suffer in silence atrocious government abuse. 

This novel is a must-read if you want to understand what starvation feels like.

In The Guest we hear the voices of the victims of a massacre that took place shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, a massacre blamed on the UN (mostly American) military but actually perpetrated by Koreans on Koreans. To allow us access to the stories of these victims the author uses a ritual in which a practitioner of native Korean spirituality channels the voices of those who have died an unnatural or premature death and who continue to wander in the ether until they are able to communicate their stories to those of us still living. Only then can they find closure and settle in the hereafter.

I probably have referred to this work more than any other in my personal library of several thousand books. This original hardback covers more than thirteen wars in hundreds of detailed maps. Later hardback and online editions have added all major conflicts from the Korean War to the recent war in Afghanistan. Patton once said that terrain is the skeleton upon which we flesh out our plans and operations. I believe no historian can understand battles and campaigns without first understanding the terrain. These maps make it possible to see the restraints and constraints imposed by terrain and give the possibility for the trained eye to retrospectively measure the coup de oeil in their subject’s eye. All military history begins with a map and the maps begin here. 

Wellman roots the adventures of his hero, Korean War vet John “the Balladeer,” in Appalachian folktale and folk customs. His hero battles strange old evils in the mountains with his faith, his traditional American folk magic (he carried a copy of The Long Lost Friend), and the evil-repelling silver of his guitar strings. Silver John was a major influence on our hero in The Cunning Man, Hiram Woolley.