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A review by renatasnacks
North Korea: Another Country by Bruce Cumings
4.0
I learned a LOT from this. After reading [b:The Orphan Master's Son|11529868|The Orphan Master's Son|Adam Johnson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327878601s/11529868.jpg|16467838] I realized I know like, nothing about North Korea. And now I know... some things about North Korea. This is a fairly dense read (... also I'm used to reading YA fiction so my bar for "dense" may have been lowered over the years) but it's certainly readable, and it is an intelligent & insightful look at the history of North Korea, particularly focused on the last 50 years or so.
Cumings has a very sympathetic, non-alarmist, non-patronizing perspective on Korean culture which is very refreshing for a USAian to read, since obviously most of our media... does not do that.
I'm still interested in checking out [b:Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea|6178648|Nothing to Envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea|Barbara Demick|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320449375s/6178648.jpg|6358552] and/or [b:The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia|16248578|The Real North Korea Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia|Andrei Lankov|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355426296s/16248578.jpg|22279286] for more about day to day life in North Korea, but this was really good, useful background reading for me.
Cumings has a very sympathetic, non-alarmist, non-patronizing perspective on Korean culture which is very refreshing for a USAian to read, since obviously most of our media... does not do that.
I'm still interested in checking out [b:Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea|6178648|Nothing to Envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea|Barbara Demick|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320449375s/6178648.jpg|6358552] and/or [b:The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia|16248578|The Real North Korea Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia|Andrei Lankov|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355426296s/16248578.jpg|22279286] for more about day to day life in North Korea, but this was really good, useful background reading for me.