A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present - Softcover

Seth, Michael J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742567168 ISBN 13: 9780742567160

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010

Synopsis

In this comprehensive yet compact book, Michael J. Seth surveys Korean history from Neolithic times to the present. He explores the origins and development of Korean society, politics, and its still little-known cultural heritage from their inception to the two Korean states of today. Telling the remarkable story of the origins and evolution of a society that borrowed and adopted from abroad, Seth describes how various tribal peoples in the peninsula came together to form one of the world's most distinctive communities. He shows how this ancient, culturally and ethnically homogeneous society was wrenched into the world of late-nineteenth-century imperialism, fell victim to Japanese expansionism, and then became arbitrarily divided into two opposed halves, North and South, after World War II. Tracing the past seven decades, the book explains how the two Koreas, with their deeply different political and social systems and geopolitical orientations, evolved into sharply contra

About this title

About the Author

Michael J. Seth is associate professor of East Asian and world history at James Madison University.

Review

Michael Seth somehow manages to pack an enormous amount of information into his short overview of the Korean peninsula's long history. With a useful glossary and a helpful bibliography, A History of Korea is especially recommended for those without any prior knowledge of Korean history and culture. (Lie, John)

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0742567168
• ISBN 13: 9780742567160
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 552