The History of Korea

by Woo-keun Han, Han Woo-keun, Kyung-Shik Lee (Translator)

Han Woo-Keun, History Of Korea, The

Genres: History, Asia, Nonfiction

551 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Heather]

I kind of skimmed parts of this book. It was sitting on my dad's shelf (one of his history textbooks from college). I thought I should learn what I could about a country I love so much. It was a little bit hard to follow, but helped me get a picture of Korean history. With it's beginning in family clans it's interesting to see the strong ties to China. Then as the whole world began to explore it's really amazing to see how many different countries and groups tried to control Korea at different times (China, Japan, Russia, etc.). It's interesting to understand a little bit more about how that history defines North and South Korea today.

[Lion]

I started reading at chapter 29. It's a riveting read, like a spy novel; the great powers wrestle for Korea, someone kidnaps the king (who is needed for appearances). The writing is good. Written in the 60's, the book is quite opinionated about Japanese occupation. It goes through the korean war only very briefly.

[Mike]

Needed it for my work with Korea. Not bad overview of these fine, hardworking folks.