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Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea
The defiant dictatorship of North Korea and the thriving democracy of South Korea may appear starkly different, but they share a complex and often misunderstood history that is ably recounted in Everlasting Flower .
Keith Pratt traverses the ancient landscapes of the Koreas, from the kingdoms of Old Choson and Wiman Choson to the present-day 38th Parallel division. The book’s engaging narrative details the wars, ruling dynasties, Chinese and Japanese imperialism, and controversial historical events such as the abuses of the Japanese occupation.
Everlasting Flower applies an equally careful eye to religious practices, dress, and food, and augments the narrative with richly illustrated pictorial essays. As the Korean peninsula assumes a prominent role in world affairs, Everlasting Flower offers an invaluable survey of Korean history and culture.
Keith Pratt traverses the ancient landscapes of the Koreas, from the kingdoms of Old Choson and Wiman Choson to the present-day 38th Parallel division. The book’s engaging narrative details the wars, ruling dynasties, Chinese and Japanese imperialism, and controversial historical events such as the abuses of the Japanese occupation.
Everlasting Flower applies an equally careful eye to religious practices, dress, and food, and augments the narrative with richly illustrated pictorial essays. As the Korean peninsula assumes a prominent role in world affairs, Everlasting Flower offers an invaluable survey of Korean history and culture.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 23, 2012
I have also been looking for a good general history of Korea for some years. Everlasting Flower was, basically… okay.
It was a little dry, and while I commend Pratt’s decision to devote space to cultural pursuits rather than restrict his history to battles and kings, the repeated diversions into painting, music, etc., were of limited help in the format of a black and white book. Perhaps this content would work better in a documentary, with sound and color. In any event, whether a fault of myself, the author or simply the material itself, confess that I finished this book with much the same sense of Korea as when I started: it’s between China and Japan, basically, geographically and otherwise. Oh well.
It was a little dry, and while I commend Pratt’s decision to devote space to cultural pursuits rather than restrict his history to battles and kings, the repeated diversions into painting, music, etc., were of limited help in the format of a black and white book. Perhaps this content would work better in a documentary, with sound and color. In any event, whether a fault of myself, the author or simply the material itself, confess that I finished this book with much the same sense of Korea as when I started: it’s between China and Japan, basically, geographically and otherwise. Oh well.
October 27, 2020
Pratt's work is a real pleasure to read. His depth of familiarity with Korea's history, arts, and intellectual life shows real love for the country and people. He's an impressively unbiased observer, representing all sides in the country's many ideological divisions like a guy who really knows how to listen. Pratt also shows serious appreciation for Korea's arts, from the design of traditional musical instruments to modern painting and film. The overall balance of the book is admirable, and made better by Pratt's admission that he has barely scratched the surface of this story.
January 3, 2010
I found this book very hard to follow.
December 12, 2023
Everlasting Flower by Keith Pratt is an history of Korea (both North and South) from ancient times to the present day. It aims to provide an overarching history without focusing on a particular theme, excepting perhaps the integration of culture into history. The book is shortish at around three hundred pages to fit the whole history of a country (at some points more than one, currently two) from the year dot to now.
Each chapter gives an overview of the period, the particularly important events as well as cultural and artistic developments, and changes in other areas such as in religion. However this is always going to be a very high level summary, for example the 11th century under Koryo gets a single page. Clearly I can't say I have much idea about what went on in Korea in that century then! The downside of this is that there is no narrative of the history of Korea which feels like there are big gaps that can be ignored because little happened. Important people almost inevitably get one mention.
Unfortunately I found this a slog to read - even the nominally narrative bits which would normally be what I enjoy. Some of this is that it is entirely unfamiliar so difficult to get a handle on but the book is written in an incredibly dry textbook style that I found a big turn off.
I don't think the structure helped. Perhaps aware that the book cant go into depth there is an attempt to balance this with more detail through boxes with 32 ‘picture essays’ on subjects like Confucian sacrificial music or making long stem bamboo pipes. I welcome pictures. But the format unfortunately kept breaking up such narrative as there is often being placed in the middle of a chapter. It also reminded me unfortunately of textbooks with key ‘must learn this’ elements.
Everlasting Flower might be an OK book if you are using it as a textbook and dipping in for the bits you need for the week but I can't really recommend it as a general read on Korean history. Unfortunately this leaves me still looking for a good history of pre-modern Korea.
Each chapter gives an overview of the period, the particularly important events as well as cultural and artistic developments, and changes in other areas such as in religion. However this is always going to be a very high level summary, for example the 11th century under Koryo gets a single page. Clearly I can't say I have much idea about what went on in Korea in that century then! The downside of this is that there is no narrative of the history of Korea which feels like there are big gaps that can be ignored because little happened. Important people almost inevitably get one mention.
Unfortunately I found this a slog to read - even the nominally narrative bits which would normally be what I enjoy. Some of this is that it is entirely unfamiliar so difficult to get a handle on but the book is written in an incredibly dry textbook style that I found a big turn off.
I don't think the structure helped. Perhaps aware that the book cant go into depth there is an attempt to balance this with more detail through boxes with 32 ‘picture essays’ on subjects like Confucian sacrificial music or making long stem bamboo pipes. I welcome pictures. But the format unfortunately kept breaking up such narrative as there is often being placed in the middle of a chapter. It also reminded me unfortunately of textbooks with key ‘must learn this’ elements.
Everlasting Flower might be an OK book if you are using it as a textbook and dipping in for the bits you need for the week but I can't really recommend it as a general read on Korean history. Unfortunately this leaves me still looking for a good history of pre-modern Korea.
December 16, 2024
This book covers a very broad period of history, don’t expect to come out of reading it with a serious understanding of Korea, but a work like this is a prerequisite to deeper study of any specific period in Korean history, providing necessary context that will allow you to pick up any book about Korean history and not be lost. In that sense, it serves its purpose quite well.
November 2, 2020
I found this work to be unreliable, poorly researched and sometimes excessively glib or even misleading. I found factual errors, errors in analysis and a failure to pursue lines of inquiry leading to wrong assessments. It had a number of strange assessments, which I felt had to be explained better and the author sorta just glides past it. I thought the summary of the Korean War was too brief, and left too little analysis of its impact.
He was lazy enough to repeat that the US dropped more bombs during the Korean war than during WW2 - the truth was it was only about 1/6th. This is the kind of lazy glib nonsense the author is fond of, so everything he says is hard to trust. Probably best to double check everything you read here.
The book is heavy on cultural history, though I think that is one of the strong points of the work.
Though there are some good elements in this book, the errors made it unacceptable to me.
I don't think I would recommend this book.
He was lazy enough to repeat that the US dropped more bombs during the Korean war than during WW2 - the truth was it was only about 1/6th. This is the kind of lazy glib nonsense the author is fond of, so everything he says is hard to trust. Probably best to double check everything you read here.
The book is heavy on cultural history, though I think that is one of the strong points of the work.
Though there are some good elements in this book, the errors made it unacceptable to me.
I don't think I would recommend this book.
March 14, 2015
Keith Pratt seems to love and know Korea, and his history is thankfully free of Western condescension. A major theme is the uniqueness of the Korean experience. There is a strong emphasis on the arts and I spent a lot of time trying to find color images on the internet of works he discusses in the text. Pratt is careful to point out events in Europe that mirror the more archaic aspects of the Korean past. He also seems to give a balanced presentation of both the contemporary South and North Korean states.
The history is not without its quirks: the 17th century appears to pass in a single paragraph after much detail before and after, and at times the chronology is hard to follow. However, the book serves as an excellent introduction to the politics, culture, and society of the Korean peninsula.
The history is not without its quirks: the 17th century appears to pass in a single paragraph after much detail before and after, and at times the chronology is hard to follow. However, the book serves as an excellent introduction to the politics, culture, and society of the Korean peninsula.
no
January 9, 2013This book is very dry, and doesn't give a good sense of chronology, which is what I was looking for.
December 21, 2012
Readable introduction.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews