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A review by pink_distro
The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings
3.0
read this for my modern korean history class, and it was super great at unraveling the american propaganda that we are taught as the "korean war." he makes it clear that the korean war was not really one defined by 'international' aggression by NK, since that border was created by the united states only 5 years prior ! instead it is much better understood as a civil war, not just between communism and some particularly authoritarian capitalists, but between NK leaders who had a history of guerrilla resistance to japanese colonization of korea and SK leaders who had largely collaborated with japanese colonialism and gotten rich doing so. he also goes into the brutal american repression of south korean leftists and locally autonomous 'people's committees' (and their families ... and their loose acquaintances) during USA's 3-year occupation of korea after WW2. all of this + more helps one understand the modern conflict between north and south korea much better, especially the lingering effects of japanese colonialism.
all of this was super enlightening bUT there are some drawbacks to cumings' individual style. the book is a little bit scattered, as he draws historical parallels or goes on about the nature of 'truth' or 'memory,' which are sometimes interesting, but often didnt feel particularly insightful to me, and i would have rather heard a korean writer discuss the things about social memory etc. he also writes in kind of a masculine way sometimes lmfao? he individualizes some things in kind of a 'great-man history' way sometimes which i think distracts from the larger social forces. and while im not against editorializing, the way he writes was just a little weird to me for some reason. also this isnt his fault but some of the segments where he is describing the atrocities of the USA military government in 1945-48 and the south korean army in the actual war are seriously just difficult / distressing to read.
so this book definitely a great & important corrective to the american narrative and it does hold some insights! but his broader understanding of history is not totally wise in my opinion
all of this was super enlightening bUT there are some drawbacks to cumings' individual style. the book is a little bit scattered, as he draws historical parallels or goes on about the nature of 'truth' or 'memory,' which are sometimes interesting, but often didnt feel particularly insightful to me, and i would have rather heard a korean writer discuss the things about social memory etc. he also writes in kind of a masculine way sometimes lmfao? he individualizes some things in kind of a 'great-man history' way sometimes which i think distracts from the larger social forces. and while im not against editorializing, the way he writes was just a little weird to me for some reason. also this isnt his fault but some of the segments where he is describing the atrocities of the USA military government in 1945-48 and the south korean army in the actual war are seriously just difficult / distressing to read.
so this book definitely a great & important corrective to the american narrative and it does hold some insights! but his broader understanding of history is not totally wise in my opinion