Customer Reviews

Korea: Its History & Culture

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Contents:
(Part 1)
History
The emergence of a nation from pre-history to 668
The nation:its community and identity from 668 to mid-17th century
Movements for change:mid-17th century to 1864
Korea and the international stage:1864-1910
Japanese colonization:1910-1945
Division and the establishment of the republic of korea:1945-present

Review:Part 1 covers about 90 pages of the book and are well arranged by topic and time period. Each section contains a brief (and well edited) summary of the key historical points. An effort is made to tie in religious/philosophical influences, foreign influences, and key events' influences into the narrative for a bit "deeper" exploration of each topic. The text is fairly non-biased and doesn't shy away from negative representations of Korea. Overall, for a book available from the Korea Overseas Information Service (free) or secondary sources (cheap), this is a real good general guideline of Korean history which covers the very beginnings to the 1990s in a general, non-biased way. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a general survey of Korean history.

(Part 2)
Culture
Philosophy and religion
Language and literature
Fine art
Performing arts
Crafts

Part 2 Review: The remaining 50 pages or so spotlight some key Korean cultural developments and their impact on Korea in general. The focus is mainly on ancient remains but these are contrasted with contemporary examples as well. The depth of this section is much less than the preceding section is more akin to a travel book description than a history text. Regardless, it does supplement the "history" part well and is lavishly illustrated.