Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey

Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey
Michael E. Robinson | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | University of Hawaii Press | 220 | Korea
For more than half of the twentieth century, the Korean peninsula has been divided between two hostile and competitive nation-states, each claiming to be the sole legitimate expression of the Korean nation. The division remains an unsolved problem dating to the beginnings of the Cold War and now projects the politics of that period into the twenty-first century. Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey is designed to provide readers with the historical essentials upon which to unravel the complex politics and contemporary crises that currently exist in the East Asian region. Beginning with a description of late-nineteenth-century imperialism, Michael Robinson shows how traditional Korean political culture shaped the response of Koreans to multiple threats to their sovereignty after being opened to the world economy by Japan in the 1870s. He locates the origins of both modern nationalism and the economic and cultural modernization of Korea in the twenty years preceding the fall of the traditional state to Japanese colonialism in 1910.

Robinson breaks new ground with his analysis of the colonial period, tracing the ideological division of contemporary Korea to the struggle of different actors to mobilize a national independence movement at the time. More importantly, he locates the reason for successful Japanese hegemony in policies that included--and thus implicated--Koreans within the colonial system. He gives readers access as well to an understanding of the unique aspects of Japanese colonialism in Korea--in particular how the relatively intensive economic development of the colony in the mid-1930s laid the foundation for subsequent development of human resources as well as the economy of the postwar period. Robinson concludes with a discussion of the political and economic evolution of South and North Korea after 1948 that accounts for the valid legitimacy claims of both nation-states on the peninsula. He thus carefully analyzes the sources of authoritarianism in South Korea while detailing its relationship to stunning economic growth after 1960 and to the democracy movement through the 1970s and 1980s. He closes with a description of South Korean politics, noting that although procedural democracy triumphed after 1987, the development of a true pluralism representing all interest groups remains a work in progress.

Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey succinctly and deftly captures the key contours of the country's past. Its balanced analytical narrative of the historical forces that shaped the political, economic, and social dynamics of the two Koreas make it a first-rate introduction to modern Korea and an excellent companion to courses on modern Korean society, politics, and history.
Reviews
"Ironically, what was the Hermit Kingdom in the late 19th century is now where the major powers of the world are congregated, tied in a knot by their inability to find a new paradigm for stability in Northeast Asia." This brilliant sentence sums up the transformation and tragic history Korea went through in the 20th century. Michael Robinson does a very good job in reconstructing this transformation on less than 200 pages. The book is written in a very concise way, while covering many important issues related to politics, economics, geopolitics, international relations, social issues and culture. Given this wide range of issues, of course you can't expect much detail, but you'll still get a pretty good idea of most of the topics important in modern Korean history.



In the last few chapters, there is a strong focus on politics and geopolitics. Elections are described in some detail and nuclear crises are analyzed several times. The author also describes the Asian financial crisis and social issues, but neglects South Korea's recent economic transformation. While doing a pretty good job in explaining the developmental state under Park Chung-hee, Robinson almost completely misses the transformation of the developmental state in late 1980s and 1990s: The role of the state underwent a major transformation, responding to increasing domestic pressure from labor movements and students as well external pressure peaking during the Reagan administration and later democratization. Interventions in the economy became less strategic and more reactive, mitigating adverse effects of the market economy (as opposed to development planning). The South Korean state increasingly embraced free trade, free markets, reduced control over the chaebol, and reduced restrictions on labor movements, allowing employees to demand a larger share of the pie. Only the last point - increasing incomes and as a result consumption - and efforts to establish a welfare state are mentioned in the book. The author completely misses other important issues related to this transformation, such as the increasing and largely unchecked power of the chaebol.



If you're interested in politics and geopolitics, including relations between the Koreas and the USA, this book is perfect for you. If you're more interested in economic development (like me), I still recommend you to read it - It will give you great background on any aspect of modern South Korea you want to study.
Reviews
The wait for a succinct yet comprehensive history of modern Korea is over. This volume, deftly written by Michael Robinson (Indiana University), comes as a welcome alternative to histories of Korea too long or complex for the typical undergraduate. His book is divided into an introduction, eight chapters (none longer than twenty-five pages), and an epilogue, each of which may be profitably read or assigned on its own. The first chapter surveys traditional Korea, and argues that the seeds of Korean modernity were present even in the Choson dynasty. In Chapters Two through Four, Robinson -- a specialist in Korea's colonial period -- surveys the brutal decades of Japanese rule, elucidating the unique features of Japan's colonizing efforts from the 1910s to the 1940s. He also draws attention to the ideological divisions within Korean society during this period that led to the eventual bifurcation of the peninsula into two confrontational nation-states after WWII. The remaining chapters examine Korea's postwar split, devoting space to developments in both North and South Korea, while a thought-provoking epilogue explores the peninsula's role in East Asian geopolitics in the twenty-first century. Striking photographs throughout confirm this volume's status as the new standard in the field.

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