Customer Reviews

A Concise History of Korea: From the Neolithic Period through the Nineteenth Century

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If you will read only one book about Korean history, this is the one. Seth organizes and edits Korea's rich and vast history into a digestible and coherent whole, covering its legendary origins and through the nineteenth century. Seth presents the history of influence by Korea's geographic neighbors, China and Japan, as something uniquely transformed by the peninsula rather than adopted wholesale or by force. Especially useful for western readers is seeing Korean history in the context of East Asian history, the development of Confucian mores in Korea, and how its geopolitical position gave the nation unnaccountable strength as well as led to its ultimate demise with the Japanese Occupation of 1910-1945. The inclusion of translated historical documents, glossary and extensive notes only add to the precision and usefulness of this book. Unlike other books about Korean history written in English (which may be more comprehensive in scope and detail), this volume presents an unbiased, respectful, carefully selected and modern view of the history of a culture and people.

This is a good history of Korea. However, it takes a very Sino-centric view, even at times substituting Korean proper, place, and subject names with the analogous Chinese words. A bit strange.

This book is an interesting read, but it contains A LOT of inaccuracies.
I don't recommend this if you really want to learn about Korean history that is based on historical records.