From the publisher’s website: This analysis of modern Korea includes: the imprisonment and sentencing of two former presidents of South Korea for their role in the Kwangju uprising and on various charges of corruption; the death of Kim II Sung and the resultant North-South standoff; and recent labour and student protests. Originally published in 1994 … [Read More]
Booklist: Politics and Current Affairs (page 8)
Class Struggle or Family Struggle? The Lives of Women Factory Workers in South Korea
From the publisher’s website: This study complements the burgeoning literature on South Korean economic development by considering it from the perspective of young female factory workers. In approaching development from this position, Kim explores the opportunity and exploitation that development has presented to female workers and humanizes the notion of the ‘Korean economic miracle’ by … [Read More]
Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: A History of Christianity and Politics
From the publisher’s website: A well-documented work on the history of modern Korea focusing on the history of Christianity in relation to politics. “This book is a clear and concise survey of the events and issues regarding the relationship of church and state in modern Korea. The author takes a historical approach in describing the … [Read More]
Big Business, Strong State: Collusion and Conflict in South Korean Development, 1960-1990
From the publisher’s website: Focuses on the paradox of development in the newly industrializing country of South Korea. This book debunks the rosy success story about South Korean economic development by analyzing how the state and businesses formed an alliance, while excluding labor, in order to attain economic development, and how these three entities were … [Read More]
Echoes of the Past, Epics of Dissent: A South Korean Social Movement
From the publisher’s website: Echoes of the Past, Epics of Dissent, the story of a South Korean social movement, offers a window to a decade of tumultuous social protest in a postcolonial, divided nation. Abelmann brings a dramatic chapter of modern Korean history to life—a period in which farmers, student activists, and organizers joined to … [Read More]
South Korea’s Minjung Movement: The Culture and Politics of Dissidence
From the publisher’s website: The minjung (people’s) movement stood at the forefront of the June 1987 nationwide tide that swept away the military in South Korea and opened up space for relatively democratic politics, a more responsible economy, and new directions in culture. This volume is the first in English to grapple specifically with the nature of … [Read More]
The Transformation of South Korea: Reform and Reconstitution in the Sixth Republic Under Roh Tae Woo, 1987-1992
From the publisher’s website: South Korea underwent rapid economic development under a semi-military, virulently anti-communist government which banned trade unions and kept close checks on the economy. President Roe Tae Woo has, however, since 1987, introduced electoral and social reforms. Strikes and wage rises have followed, leading to a loss of competitive edge, and the … [Read More]
State and Society in Contemporary Korea
This book moves beyond narrow economic concerns to explore spheres of civil society which have been neglected in the literature on economic development. Each chapter highlights a distinct pattern of Korean modernization, and the book covers such topics as emerging classes, historical sources of political cleavages, institutional bases of development policies, the rise of the … [Read More]
Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea
From the publisher’s website: James B. Palais theorizes in his important book on Korea that the remarkable longevity of the Yi dynasty (1392–1910) was related to the difficulties the country experienced in adapting to the modern world. He suggests that the aristocratic and hierarchical social system, which was the source of stability of the dynasty, was … [Read More]
Over the Mountains Are Mountains: Korean Peasant Households and Their Adaptations to Rapid Industrialization
From the publisher’s website: Clark Sorensen presents a description of the economic and ecological organization of rural Korean domestic groups and an analysis of their adaption to the changes brought about by Korea’s rapid industrialization. Still one of the only book-length studies of rural, peasant Korean households, Over the Mountains Are Mountains shows how the industrialization of … [Read More]
The Korean Workers’ Party: A Short History
The Korean Workers’ Party is the first in a new Hoover Institution Press series on the histories of the sixteen ruling communist parties from their inception to the present time. Dr. Chong-Sik Lee, a distinguished Asian scholar, accepted an invitation by the Hoover Institution to write a short history of the Korean Communist movement as … [Read More]