100 Best Korean History Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Barbara Demick, Karen White, et al

5.0

Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.

Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to

Recommended by Hyeonseo Lee.

Hyeonseo Lee

She includes great details that show everyday life in North Korea. [source]

2

Pachinko

Min Jin Lee

4.8

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision

Recommended by Emma Watson and Gail Kelly.

Gail Kelly

Former CEO/ Westpac

Member of the Group of 30, and former CEO of Westpac will be spending her summer months reading a memoir, a novel and historical non-fiction. Lab Girl—Hope Jahren Pachinko—Min Jin Lee The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics—Daniel James Brown [source]

3

Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

Graham Allison

4.8

CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE HEADING TOWARD A WAR NEITHER WANTS. The reason is Thucydides’s Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. This phenomenon is as old as history itself. About the Peloponnesian War that devastated ancient Greece, the historian Thucydides explained: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in

Recommended by Fareed Zakaria, Kin Kariisa, and Will MacAskill.

Fareed Zakaria

A very smart and important book. [source]

Kin Kariisa

It was such a memorable and humbling moment meeting Prof. Allison Graham, professor of government at Harvard, on the sidelines of Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity here in Jeju Island, South Korea. His book Destined for War is a fascinating read. https://t.co/ZB3HhBHgLY [source]

Will MacAskill

The last 70 years are a fairly unusual state. We don’t really know why they’ve been so unusually peaceful. This could all change in the 21st century. [source]

4

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom

Yeonmi Park

4.6

Human rights activist Park, who fled North Korea with her mother in 2007 at age 13 and eventually made it to South Korea two years later after a harrowing ordeal, recognized that in order to be "completely free," she had to confront the truth of her past. It is an ugly, shameful story of being sold with her mother into slave marriages by Chinese brokers, and although she at first tried to hide the

5

The Girl with Seven Names: Escape From North Korea

Hyeonseo Lee

4.6

With this compelling and unforgettable memoir based on her acclaimed TED Talk, which has over 10 million views, Hyeonseo Lee becomes one of the first female defectors from North Korea to share her story; like I Am Malala and Infidel, this is a narrative of sacrifice, survival, and extraordinary courage.

As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by the secretive

6

Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

Pierre Rigoulot

4.6

An account of the brutish conditions in North Korea. The Aquariums of Pyongyang is a heartbreaking story of survival. It is to be understood that the story is not unique in that there are thousands of families in North Korea being persecuted and starved even today. That there are still operating concentration camps as well as the implementation of the 3-generation rule, wherein everyone in the fam

Recommended by Andrei Lankov.

7

This Kind of War: The Classic Military History of the Korean War

T. R. Fehrenbach

4.6

Updated with maps, photographs, and battlefield diagrams, this special fiftieth anniversary edition of the classic history of the Korean War is a dramatic and hard-hitting account of the conflict written from the perspective of those who fought it. Partly drawn from official records, operations journals, and histories, it is based largely on the compelling personal narratives of the small-unit com

8

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

Bradley K. Martin

4.5

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. Lifting North Korea's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take readers inside a society, that to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans

Recommended by Andrei Lankov.

9

Korea: The Impossible Country: South Korea's Amazing Rise from the Ashes: The Inside Story of an Economic, Political and Cultural Phenomenon

Daniel Tudor

4.5

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 accomplish this second Asian miracle? Thro

10

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

Blaine Harden

4.4

A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times

11

Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite

Suki Kim

4.4

A haunting memoir 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 not

Recommended by Andrew Chen.

12

Sources of Korean Tradition: From Early Times Through the Sixteenth Century

Peter H. Lee

4.4

Drawn from Peter H. Lee's Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, Volume I, this abridged introductory collection offers students and general readers primary readings in the social, intellectual, and religious traditions of Korea from ancient times through the sixteenth century. Sources of Korean Tradition is arranged according to the major epochs of Korean history, including sections on: Korean cultur

13

The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat

Bob Drury

4.4

November 1950, the Korean Peninsula: After General MacArthur ignores Mao’s warnings and pushes his UN forces deep into North Korea, his 10,000 First Division Marines find themselves surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir. Their only chance for survival is to fight their way south through the Toktong Pass, a narrow gorge that will need to be held

14

A History of Korea

Kyung Moon Hwang

4.4

Presenting the richness of Korean civilization from early state formation to the jarring transformations resulting in two distinctive trajectories of modern development, this book introduces the country's major historical events, patterns, and debates. Organised both chronologically and thematically, it explore recurring themes such as Korean identity, external influence, and family and gender. Th

15

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

Vincent Bevins

4.4

A hidden history of CIA activities in Indonesia and Latin America---no less violent or consequential than other, prominent Cold War disasters, but widely overlooked for one important reason: here the CIA was successful.

During the Cold War, the U.S. effort to contain communism resulted in several disgraceful and disastrous conflicts: Vietnam, Cuba, Korea. But other conflicts in Indonesia, Brazil,

16

The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific

Alistair Urquhart

4.4

This is the extraordinary and moving tale by an ex-POW and last surviving member of the Gordon Highlanders regiment that was captured by the Japanese in Singapore.

17

Korean History in Maps: From Prehistory to the Twenty-First Century

Lee Injae, Owen Miller, et al.

4.4

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 inc

18

Single Handed: The Inspiring True Story of Tibor "Teddy" Rubin--Holocaust Survivor, Korean War Hero, and Medal of Honor Recipient

Daniel M. Cohen

4.4

From a World War II concentration camp to the Korean War to the White House, this is the story of Tibor “Teddy” Rubin, the only Holocaust survivor ever to receive a Medal of Honor...

After being captured by Nazis and living through a year in the Mauthausen concentration camp, young Hungarian immigrant Tibor Rubin arrived in America, penniless and barely speaking English. In 1950, he volunteered f

19

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

Guy Delisle, Helge Dascher

4.4

Famously referred to as one of the "Axis of Evil" countries, North Korea remains one of the most secretive and mysterious nations in the world today. In early 2001 cartoonist Guy Delisle became one of the few Westerners to be allowed access to the fortress-like country. While living in the nation's capital for two months on a work visa for a French film animation company, Delisle observed what he

Recommended by Sung J. Woo.

Sung J. Woo

Well, this is a comic book really, or a graphic novel if you want to make it sound more serious. Although it’s non-fiction, actually. It’s by a French guy, which is surprising. He went to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, to supervise an animation and he was there for two months getting to know the country. So this book is really a collection of his observations and how he saw the country and how strange it was to be there. The thing about the comic medium is that it’s perfect for representing the completely unreal state of that nation. This is a country unlike anywhere else and the comic book is more apt than any other form. There is a huge amount of propaganda in North Korea against South Korea, where I’m from. They say everyone’s spy, the living conditions are terrible and how horrible it is. But in South Korea there is the exact flip side of that. When I was growing up they said it’s terrible in North Korea, everyone’s a spy and the living conditions are horrible. [source]

20

The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History (Revised and Updated Edition)

Don Oberdorfer

4.3

Don Oberdorfer has written a gripping narrative history of Korea's travails and triumphs over the past three decades. The Two Koreas places the tensions between North and South within a historical context, with a special emphasis on the involvement of outside powers.

21

Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story--The Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company

Patrick K. O'Donnell

4.3

An epic story of valor and sacrifice by a legendary Marine company in the Korean War brought to gripping, cinematic light by an acclaimed historian ("Gives the brave Marines of George Company long overdue recognition"--New York Post)
"What would you want if you could have any wish?" asked the photojournalist of the haggard, bloodied Marine before him. The Marine gaped at his interviewer. The photo

22

The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China

Samuel Hawley

4.3

In May of 1592, Japanese dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a 158,800-man army of invasion from Kyushu to Pusan on Korea’s southern tip. His objective: to conquer Korea, then China, and then the whole of Asia. The resulting seven years of fighting, known in Korea as imjin waeran, the “Imjin invasion,” after the year of the water dragon in which it began, dwarfed contemporary conflicts in Europe and

23

White Chrysanthemum

Mary Lynn Bracht, Greta Jung

4.3

In the spirit of Lilac Girls, the heartbreaking history of Korea is brought to life in this deeply moving and redemptive debut that follows two sisters separated by World War II.

Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister

24

Dog Company: A True Story of American Soldiers Abandoned by Their High Command

Roger Hill

4.3

Now with a foreword by Sean Hannity!

The Army does not want you to read this book. It does not want to advertise its detention system that coddles enemy fighters while putting American soldiers at risk. It does not want to reveal the new lawyered-up Pentagon war ethic that prosecutes U.S. soldiers and Marines while setting free spies who kill Americans.
This very system ambushed Captain Roger Hill

25

The Orphan Master's Son

Adam Johnson

4.3

An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master's Son follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.

Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer "stolen" to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is gi

26

The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War

H. W. Brands

4.3

From master storyteller and historian H. W. Brands, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II.

At the height of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman committed a gaffe that sent shock waves around the world. When asked by a reporter about t

27

North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

Daniel Tudor, James Pearson

4.3

Named one of the best books of 2015 by The Economist

Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors.

North Korea is one of the most troubled societies on earth. The country's 24 million people live under a violent dictatorship led by a single family, which relentlessly pursues the development of nuclear arms, which periodically incites risky military clashes with the larger

Recommended by Hyeonseo Lee.

Hyeonseo Lee

Some of the information is revelatory, especially about black market trade with China – foreign films and books have been smuggled in. [source]

28

Human Acts

Han Kang

4.3

From the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian, a rare and astonishing (The Observer) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice.

In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.

The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter s

29

High Tide in the Korean War: How an Outnumbered American Regiment Defeated the Chinese at the Battle of Chipyong-Ni

Leo Barron

4.3

By early 1951, American forces and their UN allies had been driven more than 100 miles down the Korean peninsula by the Chinese. The situation was bleak when Gen. Matthew Ridgway ordered a last stand at the village of Chipyong-ni. There a single regiment (the 23rd Infantry) of fewer than 5,000 U.S. soldiers defeated a Chinese division of 25,000 men in what has been called the Gettysburg of the Kor

30

The Hidden History of the Korean War: 1950–1951 (A Nonconformist History of Our Times, #2)

I. F. Stone

4.3

In 1945 US troops arrived in Korea for what would become America’s longest-lasting conflict. While history books claim without equivocation that the war lasted from 1950 to 1953, those who have actually served there know better. By closely analyzing US intelligence before June 25, 1950 (the war’s official start), and the actions of key players like John Foster Dulles, General Douglas MacArthur, an

Recommended by Bruce Cumings.

Bruce Cumings

This book is very interesting. I F Stone was a famous iconoclastic investigative reporter. His method was to read a whole bunch of newspapers every day, clip them, and then read what the government was saying publicly through government reports, speeches and the like, and then try to figure out what was going on. And he got many things right about the Korean War using that method. In the early 1950s he was condemning the carpet bombing which the U.S. did in North Korea. This was an enemy that had almost no defence and no air power. I don’t think many people understand that North Korea suffered the same kind of fire-bombing that the British and Americans did in World War II against Japan and Germany – and yet North Korea was a small country. [source]

31

Letters from Korean History 1: From prehistory to Unified Silla and Balhae

Eun Bong Park

4.3

32

New Millennium South Korea: Neoliberal Capitalism and Transnational Movements

Jesook Song

4.3

Despite the common held belief that Asian nations have displayed anti-market tendencies of under-consumption and export-oriented trade since the Asian financial crisis, in the 10 years since the crisis, South Korea has bucked this trend accruing a higher debt rate than the US. This groundbreaking collection of essays addresses questions such as how did the open market policies and restructuring pr

33

Korea's Development Under Park Chung Hee

Hyung-A Kim

4.3

Based on personal interviews with the principal policy-makers of the 1970s, Korea's Development under Park Chung-Hee examines how the president sought to develop South Korea into an independent, autonomous sovereign state both economically and militarily. Kim provides a new narrative in the complex task of exploring the paradoxical nature and effects of Korea's rapid development which maintains th

34

A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present

Michael J. Seth

4.3

Now in a fully revised and updated edition, this comprehensive book surveys Korean history from Neolithic times to the present. Michael J. Seth explores the origins and development of Korean society, politics, and still little-known cultural heritage from their inception to the two Korean states of today. Telling the remarkable story of the origins and evolution of a society that borrowed and adop

35

Letters from Korean History 3: Joseon - from founding to later years

Eun Bong Park and translation by Ben Jackson

4.3

36

The Living Reed: A Novel of Korea

Pearl S. Buck

4.2

The Living Reed follows four generations of one family, the Kims, beginning with Il-han and his father, both advisors to the royal family in Korea. When Japan invades and the queen is killed, Il-han takes his family into hiding. In the ensuing years, he and his family take part in the secret war against the Japanese occupation. Pearl S. Buck's epic tells the history of Korea through the lives of o

37

The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea

JaHyun Kim Haboush

4.2

Lady Hyegyong's memoirs, which recount the chilling murder of her husband by his father, is one of the best known and most popular classics of Korean literature. From 1795 until 1805 Lady Hyegyong composed this masterpiece, which depicts a court life whose drama and pathos is of Shakespearean proportions. Presented in its social, cultural, and historical contexts, this complete English translation

38

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

Captivating History

4.2

39

The Korean War: A History

Bruce Cumings

4.2

A BRACING ACCOUNT OF A WAR THAT IS EITHER MISUNDERSTOOD, FORGOTTEN, OR WILLFULLY IGNORED

For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953. But for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long struggle that still haunts contemporary events. With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents,

40

Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392

Kumja Paik Kim, Kaz Tsuruta

4.2

Containing over 100 photos of Korean art pieces along with thoughtful essays, Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment 918-1392 captures this fundamental period of Korean history.

Few people are aware that the name Korea is derived from Goryeo of the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392). Under the patronage of the royal court, the aristocracy and the Buddhist elite—whose taste are for luxury and refinemen

41

The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia

Andrei Lankov

4.2

Andrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the former Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal contacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding. In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this op

Cover unavailable

42

SOUTH KOREA: The Price of Efficiency and Success

John Gonzalez

4.2

South Korea's extraordinary economic and technological transformation after the Korean War (1950-1953) is often referred to by observers and historians as the 'Miracle on the Han River". The nation underwent an astonishing makeover from being one one of the poorest countries to become the 12th largest economy in the world and 4th in Asia. South Korea also became one of the most technologically adv

43

When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea

Janet Poole

4.2

Taking a panoramic view of Korea's dynamic literary production in the final decade of Japanese rule, When the Future Disappears locates the imprint of a new temporal sense in Korean modernism: the impression of time interrupted, with no promise of a future. As colonial subjects of an empire headed toward total war, Korean writers in this global fascist moment produced some of the most sophisticate

44

GRAND ROYAL PALACES OF KOREA: Over 200 Pages of Beautiful Photos With Cultural and Historical Background Explanations In English

Yeong-hun Lee

4.2

45

Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History

Bruce Cumings Ph.D.

4.2

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 ar

46

China: A History

John Keay

4.2

An authoritative account of five thousand years of Chinese history
Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or people; China defines itself in terms of history. Taking into account the country's unrivaled, voluminous tradition of history writing, John Keay has composed a vital and illuminating overview of the nation's complex and vivid past. Keay's authoritative history examines 5,000 y

47

Six Silent Men, Book Two (101st Lrp/Rangers)

Kenn Miller

4.2

In the summer of 1967, the good old days were ending for the hard-core 1st Brigade LRRPs of the 101st Airborne Division, perhaps the finest maneuver element of its size in the history of the United States Army. It was a bitter pill. After working on their own in Vietnam for more than two years, the Brigade LRRPs were ordered to join forces with the division once again.

But even as these formidable

48

North Korean Government: A Contemporary History (Nutshell Books Book 1)

Nutshell Books

4.2

49

A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present

Michael J. Seth

4.2

In this comprehensive yet compact book, Michael J. Seth surveys Korean history from Neolithic times to the present. He explores the origins and development of Korean society, politics, and its still little-known cultural heritage from their inception to the two Korean states of today. Telling the remarkable story of the origins and evolution of a society that borrowed and adopted from abroad, Seth

50

Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il

Michael Malice

4.2

No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Now, celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the "Incarnation of Love and Morality." Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, DEAR READER is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind th

51

The Proletarian Gamble: Korean Workers in Interwar Japan

Ken C. Kawashima

4.2

Koreans constituted the largest colonial labor force in imperial Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Caught between the Scylla of agricultural destitution in Korea and the Charybdis of industrial depression in Japan, migrant Korean peasants arrived on Japanese soil amid extreme instability in the labor and housing markets. In The Proletarian Gamble, Ken C. Kawashima maintains that contingent labor i

52

Made in North Korea: Graphics From Everyday Life in the DPRK

Nick Bonner

4.2

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

53

A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea

Eunsun Kim

4.2

Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country…despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated.

By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eu

54

MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea, 1950–53

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

4.2

Of the many myths that emerged following the end of the Korean War, the prevailing one in the West was that of the absolute supremacy of US Air Force pilots and aircraft over their Soviet-supplied opponents. The claims of the 10:1 victory-loss ratio achieved by the US Air Force fighter pilots flying the North American F-86 Sabre against their communist adversaries, amongst other such fabrications,

55

Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953

Charles J. Hanley

4.2

A narrative, character-driven account of the Korean War that sheds light on the atrocities and hardships suffered by all sides in the "forgotten" conflict.
Although it was then perceived as a far-off and inconclusive engagement, the Korean War was a decisive and deeply destructive conflict. American forces dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea --- more than the entire Pacific campaign of World

56

Korean Workers: The Culture and Politics of Class Formation

Hagen Koo

4.1

Forty years of rapid industrialization have transformed millions of South Korean peasants and their sons and daughters into urban factory workers. Hagen Koo explores the experiences of this first generation of industrial workers and describes its struggles to improve working conditions in the factory and to search for justice in society.

The working class in South Korea was born in a cultural and p

57

Battleships of the United States Navy

Michael Green

4.1

From 1895 to 1944 the US Navy commissioned some 60 steel-clad battleships; the first being Indiana (BB-1) and the last USS Missouri (BB-63). After an impressive showing in the Spanish-American War and the 'Great White Fleet's' circumnavigation of the world, US battleships played only a minor role in the First World War. They came into their own in WW2 primarily bombarding enemy held coastal region

58

Art of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392�1910: Treasures from Korea

Hyunsoo Woo

4.1

Art of the Joseon Dynasty is the first major publication outside of Korea to survey the artistic production of the world’s longest-ruling Confucian dynasty, which reigned on the Korean peninsula from 1392 to 1910. The Joseon dynasty left a substantial legacy for modern Korea, influencing contemporary etiquette, cultural norms, and societal attitudes. Beautifully illustrated with color images of so

59

Escaping the Trap: The U.S. Army X Corps in Northeast Korea, 1950

Roy E. Appleman

4.1

Cover unavailable

60

Zen Sourcebook: Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan

Stephen Addiss

4.1

"Featuring a carefully selected collection of source documents, this tome includes traditional teaching tools from the Zen Buddhist traditions of China (Ch'an), Korea (Son), and Japan (Zen), including texts created by women. The selections provide both a good feel for the varieties of Zen and an experience of its common core. . . . The texts are experiential teachings and include storytelling, poe

61

The Confucian Transformation of Korea: A Study of Society and Ideology

Martina Deuchler

4.1

Legislation to change Korean society along Confucian lines began at the founding of the Chosŏn dynasty in 1392 and had apparently achieved its purpose by the mid seventeenth century. Until this important new study, however, the nature of Koryŏ society, the stresses induced by the new legislation, and society's resistance to the Neo-Confucian changes imposed by the Chosŏn elite have remained largel

62

Koreans in America

Bong Youn Choy

4.1

63

Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech

Geoffrey Cain

4.1

64

The Darkest Summer: Pusan and Inchon 1950: The Battles That Saved South Korea--and the Marines--from Extinction

Bill Sloan

4.1

The Darkest Summer is the dramatic story of the first three months of the Korean War as it has never been told before. A narrative studded with gripping eyewitness accounts, it focuses on the fateful days when the Korean War’s most decisive battles were fought and the Americans who fought them went— however briefly—from the depths of despair to the exultation of total conquest. Drawing on exclusiv

65

The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950

Charles K. Armstrong

4.1

North Korea, despite a shattered economy and a populace suffering from widespread hunger, has outlived repeated forecasts of its imminent demise. Charles K. Armstrong contends that a major source of North Korea's strength and resiliency, as well as of its flaws and shortcomings, lies in the poorly understood origins of its system of government. He examines the genesis of the Democratic People's Re

66

A Brief History of Korea: Isolation, War, Despotism and Revival: The Fascinating Story of a Resilient But Divided People

Michael J. Seth

4.1

Exploring Korean history from its ancient roots to the present day, A Brief History of Korea is the story of a people with a rich and united culture that has become two Koreas in modern times--one isolated and secretive and the other among the world's most successful economies. Korean culture developed on a 600-mile-long peninsula, bordered on the north by mountains and three sides by the sea, set

67

The Making of Minjung

Namhee Lee

4.1

In this sweeping intellectual and cultural history of the minjung (common people's) movement in South Korea, Namhee Lee shows how the movement arose in the 1970s and 1980s in response to the repressive authoritarian regime and grew out of a widespread sense that the nation's failed history left Korean identity profoundly incomplete.The Making of Minjung captures the movement in its many dimensions

68

North Korea Journal

Michael Palin

4.1

THE BOOK BEHIND THE HIT DOCUMENTARY

A glimpse of life inside the world’s most secretive country, as told by Britain’s best-loved travel writer.

In May 2018, former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a cut-off land without internet or phone signal, where the countryside has barely moved beyo

69

Sources of Korean Tradition: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries

Peter H. Lee, Wm. Theodore de Bary, Yôngho Ch'oe

4.1

Modeled after the classic Sources of Chinese Tradition, Sources of Japanese Tradition, and Sources of Indian Tradition, this collection of seminal primary readings in the social, intellectual, and religious traditions of Korea from the sixteenth century to the present day lays the groundwork for understanding Korean civilization and demonstrates how leading intellectuals and public figures in Ko

70

Fighting for the Enemy: Koreans in Japan's War, 1937-1945

Brandon Palmer

4.1

Fighting for the Enemy explores the participation of Koreans in the Japanese military and supporting industries before and during World War II, first through voluntary enlistment and eventually through conscription. Contrary to popular belief among Korean nationalists, this involvement was not entirely coerced. Brandon Palmer examines this ambiguous situation in the context of Japan's long-term co

71

This Kind of War: Korea- A Study in Unpreparedness

T. R Fehrenbach

4.1

72

Military History Crossword Puzzles: Large Print Edition:Volume 2: WW1 to Iraq 1: Large Print Crosswords for Seniors, History Lovers (Creative Books and Puzzles)

Creative Activities

4.1

73

A New History of Asian America. Shelley Sang-Hee Lee

Shelley Sang-Hee Lee

4.1

A New History of Asian America is a fresh and up-to-date history of Asians in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present. Drawing on current scholarship, Shelley Lee brings forward the many strands of Asian American history, highlighting the distinctive nature of the Asian American experience while placing the narrative in the context of the major trajectories and turning po

74

North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®

Patrick McEachern

4.1

75

Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945

Hildi Kang

4.1

In the rich and varied life stories in Under the Black Umbrella, elderly Koreans recall incidents that illustrate the complexities of Korea during the colonial period. Hildi Kang here reinvigorates a period of Korean history long shrouded in the silence of those who endured under the black umbrella of Japanese colonial rule. Existing descriptions of the colonial period tend to focus on extremes: i

76

A Korean History for International Readers: What Do Koreans Talk About Their Own History and Culture?

The Association of Korean History…

4.1

This book is a historical text that covers Korean history from its foundation to the modern era. It especially deals with pre-modern societies of Korea in detail. Despite its long history, life in its society and its culture are rarely spoken of outsides the peninsula. Rather than arranging the historical events chronologically, this book focuses more on the details of the historical events by que

77

The Korean War Trivia Book: Interesting Stories and Random Facts From The Korean War (Trivia War Books Book 4)

Bill O'Neill

4.1

It was on your screen when you watched the 2018 Olympics, and it’s in the background every time Donald Trump sends out a tweet about Kim Jong-un. It’s the Korean War.

You may not have heard as much about the Korean War as you have about the American Civil War, World War Two, or the Vietnam War. It’s not the topic of dozens of movies every year, and many Americans never learned about it, even once,

78

China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China

Hans van de Ven

4.1

China's mid-twentieth-century wars pose extraordinary interpretive challenges. The issue is not just that the Chinese fought for such a long time--from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 1937 until the close of the Korean War in 1953--across such vast territory. As Hans van de Ven explains, the greatest puzzles lie in understanding China's simultaneous external and internal wars. Much is at st

79

Brokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876-1945

Jun Uchida

4.1

Between 1876 and 1945, thousands of Japanese civilians--merchants, traders, prostitutes, journalists, teachers, and adventurers--left their homeland for a new life on the Korean peninsula. Although most migrants were guided primarily by personal profit and only secondarily by national interest, their mundane lives and the state's ambitions were inextricably entwined in the rise of imperial Japan.

Cover unavailable

80

Red Azalea

Anchee Min

4.1

Red Azalea is Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China. As a child, she was asked to publicly humiliate a teacher; at seventeen, she was sent to work at a labor collective. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she found a lifeline in a secret love affair with another woman. Miraculously selected for the film version of one of Madame M

81

A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949

Kevin Peraino

4.1

A gripping narrative of the Truman Administration's response to the fall of Nationalist China and the triumph of Mao Zedong's Communist forces in 1949--an extraordinary political revolution that continues to shape East Asian politics to this day.

In the opening months of 1949, U.S. President Harry S. Truman found himself faced with a looming diplomatic catastrophe--"perhaps the greatest that this c

82

Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land

Patrick French

4.1

At different times in its history Tibet has been renowned for pacifism and martial prowess, enlightenment and cruelty. The Dalai Lama may be the only religious leader who can inspire the devotion of agnostics. Patrick French has been fascinated by Tibet since he was a teenager. He has read its history, agitated for its freedom, and risked arrest to travel through its remote interior. His love and

83

The Origins of the Korean War, Volume I: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947

Bruce Cumings

4.1

Distributed for Yuksabipyungsa Press

In Volume II of The Origins of the Korean War, Cumings examines the internal political-economic development of the two Korean states and the consequences, for Korea, of Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. He investigates the intense border fighting and internal political instability that preceded the Northern invasion and challenges

84

Korea Between Empires, 1895-1919

Andre Schmid

4.0

"Korea Between Empires" chronicles the development of a Korean national consciousness. It focuses on two critical periods in Korean history and asks how key concepts and symbols were created and integrated into political programs to create an original Korean understanding of national identity, the nation-state, and nationalism. Looking at the often-ignored questions of representation, narrative, a

85

Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform

Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland

4.0

In the mid-1990s, as many as one million North Koreans died in one of the worst famines of the twentieth century. The socialist food distribution system collapsed primarily because of a misguided push for self-reliance, but was compounded by the regime's failure to formulate a quick response-including the blocking of desperately needed humanitarian relief.

As households, enterprises, local party or

Recommended by Andrei Lankov.

86

Wrongful Deaths: Selected Inquest Records from Nineteenth-Century Korea

Sun Joo Kim, Jungwon Kim

4.0

This collection presents and analyzes inquest records that tell the stories of ordinary Korean people under the Choson court (1392-1910). Extending the study of this period, usually limited to elites, into the realm of everyday life, each inquest record includes a detailed postmortem examination and features testimony from everyone directly or indirectly related to the incident. The result is an a

Cover unavailable

87

The Future Is Asian

Parag Khanna

4.0

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 Indonesia—linking five billion people through

88

The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea

Charles Robert Jenkins

4.0

In January of 1965, twenty-four-year-old U.S. Army sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins abandoned his post in South Korea, walked across the DMZ, and surrendered to communist North Korean soldiers standing sentry along the world's most heavily militarized border. He believed his action would get him back to the States and a short jail sentence. Instead he found himself in another sort of prison, where

89

Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer's Insights into North Korea's Enigmatic Young Dictator

Jung H. Pak

4.0

A groundbreaking account of the rise of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un, from his nuclear ambitions to his summits with President Donald J. Trump--from a former CIA analyst considered one of the leading American experts on the North Korean leader inside and outside the U.S. government.

When Kim Jong Un became the leader of North Korea following his father's death in 2011, predictions about his i

90

The Korean War

Carter Malkasian

4.0

The Korean War was a significant turning point in the Cold War. This book explains how the conflict in a small peninsula in East Asia had a tremendous impact on the entire international system and the balance of power between the two superpowers, America and Russia. Through the conflict, the West demonstrated its resolve to thwart Communist aggression and the armed forces of China, the Soviet Unio

91

Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism and Choson Korea, 1850-1910 (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

Kirk W. Larsen

4.0

Relations between the Chosaeon and Qing states are often cited as the prime example of the operation of the traditional Chinese tribute system. In contrast, this work contends that the motivations, tactics and successes (and failures) of the late Qing Empire in Chosaeon Korea mirrored those of other 19th-century imperialists."

92

The Korean War: An International History

Wada Haruki

4.0

This classic history of the Korean War--from its origins through the armistice--is now available in English for the first time. Wada Haruki, one of the world's leading scholars of the war, has thoroughly revised his definitive study to incorporate new sources and debates. Drawing on archival and other primary sources in Russia, China, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, the author m

93

Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945

Todd A. Henry

4.0

Assimilating Seoul, the first book-length study written in English about Seoul during the colonial period, challenges conventional nationalist paradigms by revealing the intersection of Korean and Japanese history in this important capital. Through microhistories of Shinto festivals, industrial expositions, and sanitation campaigns, Todd A. Henry offers a transnational account that treats the city

94

The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan

C. Sarah Soh

4.0

In an era marked by atrocities perpetrated on a grand scale, the tragedy of the so-called comfort women—mostly Korean women forced into prostitution by the Japanese army—endures as one of the darkest events of World War II. These women have usually been labeled victims of a war crime, a simplistic view that makes it easy to pin blame on the policies of imperial Japan and therefore easier to consig

95

Offspring of Empire: The Koch'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876-1945

Carter J. Eckert

4.0

Winner of the John Whitney Hall Book Prize, sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies

96

The Korean War: An Interactive Modern History Adventure

Michael Burgan

4.0

Each book looks at an event that changed our world, with in-depth information about the event, those involved, and the issues at stake at the time, as well as the aftermath and consquences.

97

A New History of Korea

Ki-baik Lee, Edward W. Wagner, et al.

4.0

The first English-language history of Korea to appear in more than a decade, this translation offers Western readers a distillation of the latest and best scholarship on Korean history and culture from the earliest times to the student revolution of 1960. The most widely read and respected general history, A New History of Korea (Han'guksa sillon) was first published in 1961 and has undergone two

98

Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953

Shu Guang Zhang

4.0

This is the first English-language military history of what the People's Republic of China called the "War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea." Based upon a vast array of recently available Chinese sources, it provides a revealing new look at the far-reaching influence of Mao Zedong's political and military thought on China's conduct of the war.

As Shu Guang Zhang reminds us, many observers in

99

Korean War: A History From Beginning to End

Hourly History

4.0

The Korean War, which began in 1950 and ended in 1953, is not considered one of the major wars of the twentieth century. However, in reality, it was profoundly impactful on global history. As an early crisis of the Cold War, it set important precedents for how conflicts would be handled during this era. But also, it has shaped Korea’s history for more than half a century.

Inside you will read abo

100

A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592–1598

Dr. Kenneth M. Swope Ph.D

4.0