The Partition of Korea after World War II: A Global History [Paperback]

Jongsoo James Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0230602274 | ISBN-13: 978-0230602274 | Edition: First Edition

Sixty years after Korea's partition into South Korea and North Korea, a full understanding of how this partition occurred is still wanting. Based on a careful examination of sources in Russian, English and Korean, including new archival evidence from Moscow, this book seeks to provide this understanding. Taking into account not only the policies of the Soviet Union and the United States but also the roles played by the Koreans themselves, Jongsoo Lee untangles the complex dynamics of the Korean partition, placing this partition in the context of modern world history and the emerging Cold War. Comparing Korea with Germany, Austria, Finland and elsewhere after World War II, Lee suggests possible alternative outcomes to Korean partition, thus shedding light on Korea's present predicament as she faces the challenges of reunification.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Relying on both primary and secondary sources, notably newly accessible Soveit archives, Lee meticulously goesw over major wartime conferences and decisions among the Allied powers concerning the future shape of Korea. . .this book is an illuminating addition to scholarship on modern Korean history."--Vipan Chandra, Pacific Affairs

 

"Jongsoo Lee's The Partition of Korea after World War II is an outstanding achievement. Lee provides a comprehensive and complex account of Korea's partition using an astonishingly impressive array of American, Russian, and Korean archival sources. His thorough and subtle analysis has set a new and very high standard for the subject. Many diplomatic historians aspire to write history from a multinational and multiarchival perspective but fall short: Jongsoo Lee, however, has not. His book is properly subtitled A Global History." —John Earl Haynes, author of Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America

"[A] close and thoughtful analysis of one of the most long-lasting and troublesome elements of Stalin's postwar foreign policy... This book provides the most extensive examination of this subject yet published and is particularly valuable for charting simultaneously the development of Soviet and American policy toward the peninsula together with the actions of Korean political leaders." —The Russian Review

About the Author

Jongsoo Lee is Assistant Professor, Department of History & Political Science, at Manchester College and a Center Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.  Lee has also served as an Associate in Research at Harvard's Korea Institute.  A historian and a political scientist with broad research interests, Lee has taught at Dartmouth College and Bowdoin College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230602274
• ISBN-13: 978-0230602274
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,300,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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