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Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 19:27:17 -0500
Sender: H-Net list for Asian History and Culture <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
From: Christiane Reinhold <reinholdc@mail.utexas.edu>
Subject: H-ASIA: Q. Book Recommendations of Divided Korea
To: H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU

Book Recommendations of Divided Korea

A dialog from the H-Asia list, July 1998

From: Matthew Parrish & Sook Ja Suh <katobase@wcc.net>
July 16, 1998

I'm looking for books that discuss the division of the Korean peninsula. I'm going to have to purchase any recommendations, so recent publications are preferred. Alas, my local public library in west Texas is sorely lacking.

Thanks in advance.

matt parrish

From: Sherri West <swest@injersey.com>
July 16, 1998

Dear Matt,

One of the best books that I've read lately on Korea's modern history, including the division of North and South, is Bruce Cumings' _Korea's Place in the Sun, A Modern History_, W.W.Norton, 1997. It's both a narrative of events, including some of the recently declassified documents from the Soviet and Chinese archives, and a piercing analysis of the role of the superpowers. A great read!

Sherri West

Professor Sherri West
History Department
Brookdale Community College
Lincroft, NJ 07738
swest@injersey.com

From: Brad De Long <delong@econ.Berkeley.EDU>
July 17, 1998

Cumings had made a bunch of claims and inferences that did not seem to me to hold up given recent declassifications from Russia and China--and he seemed overly grouchy on the Cold War History Project.

How have his views changed over the decade since the end of the iron curtain?

From: Brad De Long <delong@econ.Berkeley.EDU>
July 17, 1998

> Could you be more specific on the generalizations below, or
> illustrate with examples? Thanks.
> --Bill Wykoff
>

See:
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/CWIHP/BULLETINS/b6-7a8.htm

My reading was that Prof. Cumings came off very badly indeed--unwilling to even read new documents because they might upset long-held views...

From: JMichael Allen <jm.allen@auckland.ac.nz>
July 19, 1998

If you find _Korea's Place in the Sun_ off-putting for whatever reason, you might try Cumings's introduction to _Child of Conflict: The Korean-American Relationship, 1943-1953_. This is a good discussion of the division of the peninsula, largely (though not entirely) from the perspective of changes in American foreign policy priorities.

J. Michael Allen
University of Auckland