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A History of Korea: From "Land of the Morning Calm" to States in Conflict . By Jinwung Kim . Bloomington : Indiana University Press , 2012. xx, 684 pp. $50.00 (cloth).
Book Reviews--Korea
Although recent years have seen a number of general histories on Korea being published in English, new additions are always welcome. A History of Korea: From "Land of the Morning Calm" to States in Conflict by Jinwung Kim is a clearly written, comprehensive, and impressively detailed work and as such has the potential to be a useful contribution. The author is a specialist on Korea-U.S. relations, and in particular the treatment of post-1945 developments in this book gives an in-depth and balanced picture of a very tumultuous and contested period in Korean history. The introduction states that one of the author's aims in writing this book was to present a coherent consensus on contentious periods in Korean history. The treatment of the division of Korea and the outbreak of the Korean War is indeed successful in achieving this, and the treatment of postwar developments is also illuminating by giving equal weight to the treatment of both states. The detailed narration also provides insights lacking in other English-language general histories.
The treatment of other periods in Korean history is also very detailed and in a similar manner often provides information usually not found in general surveys. This is a potential strength of the book, but unfortunately the treatment of other periods...