A review by ihfdayton
North Korea: Another Country by Bruce Cumings

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Overall a very solid introduction for those who know little (or nothing) about the DPRK. It lacks a level of depth that I would have liked, and it sometimes veers more into personal anecdotes/evaluations than careful history, but these are relatively minor demerits. The most annoying part is the scattered comments that betray a (seemingly disingenuous) personal prejudice that is incongruous with and unsupported by preceding evidence and point of view. It makes me think that the editor was worried this book would be too controversial for American readers and so requested (or required) some inflammatory commentary in line with the dominant view. This is extremely unnecessary as the book is middling at best in its ideological point of view. The most that can be said is author is very critical of the US military and contemporary (Bush era) policy around North Korea, but his presentation of DPRK ideology often waffles between objective (if detached) praise and rote anti-communism. Again, I feel these oddities can be mostly overlooked and are mostly noticeable to those with more background knowledge about DPRK or a stronger ideological position.