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, in school. The Korean War was part of the Cold War – a more familiar subject – but while Sputnik, the Berlin Wall, and MAD have faded from our collective memory of what the Cold War was, the Korean War remains the one part of the Cold War that’s still active.
The Korean War has everything: rebel uprisings, a totalitarian regime, mad dictators, and mysterious, lying media. It might sound like it’s right out of a dystopian sci-fi novel, but it really happened, and is still happening today.
With this book in hand, you’ll finally learn the ins and outs of the Korean War. You’ll learn the key players and the big events. Who was Kim Il-sung, and what is the demilitarized zone? But you’ll also learn some facts that get left out of the history books. So open up this book and get ready to find out…
Why Korea was a prime target for a Cold War conflict.
How a dictator comes to power.
What life was like for normal Korean citizens during the war.
How you can visit North Korea today – and why you might, or might not, want to,
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
This was really interesting. I don’t know much about Korea, and it was really interesting to hear all of these different little facts. I loved how there were specific chapters dedicated to the USSR and China’s influence over Korea’s development.
I like how the books are pretty topical as well, how the book opens talking about Trump and ends talking about Obama. The final chapter which talks about the legacy of the Korean War was really interesting.
This was a really good trivia book, a good addition to O’Niell’s series.
‘Did the American army really massacre Korean civilians like North Korea has said?’
Author Bill O’Neill is a prolific writer – and he loves to explore all manner of subjects from reiku to trivia. His initial ‘Trivia War Book series’ addressed World War II, then Book 2 of War Books covered the Vietnam War, his third volume focused on the American Civil War. Now Book 4 - one of the best of the series! – brings to light the much-shadowed Korean War. Bill O’Neill has authored many books on Trivia and stands as somewhat of an expert in this field! His topics include movies, football, baseball, rock music and simply random trivia facts.
While the synopsis of the book covers many of the facts aka trivia to be found in this book, it is to be expected that the Introduction offers insights into the background of the Korean War that too few people understand: ‘Have you opened up Twitter recently and seen Donald Trump making some wild and insulting comment about North Korea? Have you asked yourself how he’s getting away with this – or what North Korea might have done to be attacked so harshly? Do you wonder how, in 2017, there can be a communist dictatorship that doesn’t allow its citizens to access the Internet? If you have, this book is for you. The Korean War is not one of the most popular historical wars. It’s not the backdrop for hundreds of movies like the Vietnam War or World War II. No one dresses up in Korean War gear and re-enacts Korean War battles like they do for the Revolutionary War or the American Civil War. The Korean War isn’t a big part of American history textbooks, and you might not even have learned about it once in school, while many history classes in the United States cover the World Wars or the American Civil War every single year. But that’s not the biggest difference between the Korean War and all those other wars. The biggest difference is that the Korean War is still going on. Many people don’t know this, but North Korea and South Korea have a temporary armistice – and at any moment, without having to declare war again, fighting could break out. This means that the Korean War holds a unique place in our culture – it happened long enough ago that it’s history, but its effects are still ongoing that it’s contemporary culture, too. That’s why learning about the Korean War today is so important. It may be a seventy-year-old war, but it’s still making an impact… and not a good one. This book will help you bridge that divide between what happened in the 1950s and what’s going on today. We’ll start with some background, so that you have a good clear grasp on what was happening in Korea before the great communist-versus-capitalist war of ideologies split it in two. Then we’ll examine the four main groups of players during the Korean War: the North Koreans, the South Koreans, the United States and United Nations, and the communist powers of the Soviet Union and China. By learning about all four of these different perspectives, you’ll finish this book with a more rounded, more complex, and much more interesting understanding of what the Korean War really meant for the world. Each chapter of this book contains fifteen short stories or explanations that will break down the complex, intertwined politics of the Korean War into bite-sized pieces. Some of these stories will introduce you to colorful characters, like Kurt Lee or John Thorton, while others will break down the politics and events of the war so that they’re easy to follow. The chapters will cover the actual period of fighting, from 1950 to 1953 (and the two years of negotiation afterwards), but they’ll also look at what’s been happening with each of our four major players since then, and what kind of imprint the Korean War has left on the world. More than perhaps any other war so far back in history, the Korean War needs to be understood as a part of the present, and when you learn about it, you should always be asking yourself – how are these events still affecting the world today?’
This book is so rich in facts and questions/answers about the Korean War that it truly relives the nearly forgotten time. Bill divides his book into the Prelude to the Korean War, North Korea, South Korea, The Unite States and the United Nations I Korea, China and the Soviet Union in Korea, and the Legacy of the Korean War (M*A*S*H, The Manchurian Candidate and much more). Each chapter challenges us with questions about trivia – and thankfully provides the answers at the end of each chapter.
Read this and talk to people about it and maybe we won’t have another mess like the fear of what is happening currently along the lines of North Korea and a President who seems to not fear WW III.
The Korean War Trivia Book: Interesting Stories and Random Facts from the Korean War : Bill O'Neill
I love trivia book covering many topics. This author has compiled many different works. The Korean War (Conflict) (Police Action,) or whatever you wish to call it, happened before I was born. The most I knew about it before listening to this book was from the TV show, M.A.S.H. and what friends that served there told me (very limited.) Now I have more information and can understand a bit more of that period in time.
The narration was well done. Derek Newman did an excellent job passing along a short history lesson.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Love these books! I always learn so much and it's super entertaining. I admit, I did not know a lot about the Korean War, and this really gave me a lot of good info. It's a nutshell version of everything you need or want to know about the Korean War... I really enjoyed listening to it, and I just won't be happy until I've read/listened to each of Bill O'Neill's books! Can't go wrong with this one. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
The Korean War Trivia Book: Interesting Stories and Random Facts From The Korean War (Trivia War Books Book 4) by Bill O'Neill was a good read. This was a great collection of facts about the Korean War from the beginning of the war until now. I enjoyed reading this book.
This is the fifth book I’ve read/listened to by this author. He does not disappoint. This book is also full of insightful information. I like how he brings up facts I am unaware of, and that make me think about the content from a different angle.
This is the fourth book I’ve listened to by this narrator (Derek Newman) and I would listen to another. All previous books were also by Bill O”Neil. He does very well reading this content. His narration is slower, but he speaks clearly enough I was able to increase listening speed to 1.5 without any issues.
There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence or swearing.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review. Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.
I was happy to receive ‘The Great Korean War Trivia Quiz Book’, by Bill O’Neill, through the Library Thing ‘Member Giveaway’. As I had in previous editions of O’Neill’s Trivia Quiz Books, I enjoyed learning more about the book’s topic. O’Neill has compiled an interesting assortment of Korean War Trivia that I have no doubt will challenge even the most dedicated military historian.
As with his other books, this one is laid out in a compelling manner, with quizzes in different categories, each followed by their answers, and then a more in depth group of facts related to the subject at hand. If you are a fan of trivia, you need this book. Once again, O’Neill is a master of trivial knowledge and I would not suggest joining him for a game of Trivia Pursuit.
This trivia book is more of historical look at the Korean War. There is a lot to be said about this war. The thing here is very little is known by the average person. So this is the place to start finding out about the Korean War. So if you want to find out some information on the War this is a good start.