You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Colonial Rule and Social Change in Korea 1910-1945 highlights the complex interaction between indigenous activity and colonial governance, emphasizing how Japanese rule adapted to Korean and missionary initiatives, as well as how Koreans found space within the colonial system to show agency. Topics covered range from economic development and national identity to education and family; from peasant uprisings and thought conversion to a comparison of missionary and colonial leprosariums. These various new assessments of Japan's colonial legacy may open up new and illuminating approaches to historical memory that will resonate not just in Korean studies, but in colonial and postcolonial studies in general, and will have implications for the future of regional politics in East Asia.
In recent years, discussion of the colonial period in Korea has centered mostly on the degree of exploitation or development that took place domestically, while international aspects have been relatively neglected. Colonial discourse, such as characterization of Korea as a “hermit nation,” was promulgated around the world by Japan and haunts us today. The colonization of Korea also transformed Japan and has had long-term consequences for post–World War II Northeast Asia as a whole. Through sections that explore Japan’s images of Korea, colonial Koreans’ perceptions of foreign societies and foreign relations, and international perceptions of colonial Korea, the essays in this volume show the broad influence of Japanese colonialism not simply on the Korean peninsula, but on how the world understood Japan and how Japan understood itself. When initially incorporated into the Japanese empire, Korea seemed lost to Japan’s designs, yet Korean resistance to colonial rule, along with later international fear of Japanese expansion, led the world to rethink the importance of Korea as a future sovereign nation.
South Korea's rapid industrialization occurred with the rise of powerful chaebǒl (family-owned business conglomerates) that controlled vast swaths of the nation's economy. Leader Park Chung Hee's sense of backwardness and urgency led him to rely on familial, school, and regional ties to expedite the economic transformation. Late Industrialization, Tradition, and Social Change in South Korea elucidates how a country can progress economically while relying on traditional social structures that usually fragment political and economic vitality. The book proposes a new framework for macro social change under late industrialization by analyzing the specific process of interactions between economi...
This book is an integrated examination of Japanese politics in the first two decades of the 21st century, as viewed from the perspective of "anxiety over governance." By empirically highlighting the social-environmental, political environmental, and sociocultural changes that have underlined the long-term political participation and voting behavior of Japanese citizens, the book provides deep insight into how modern democracies function and are perceived in post-industrial societies and reveals the specific processes by which Japanese politics have changed. Additionally, the book provides an analysis of the decline in social capital, the shrinking variety of political parties, and the interm...
This book shows how historical experiences have affected East Asian security debates, as reflected in enduring concerns with sovereign autonomy.
The First World War was a truely global event that changed the course of history in many participating as well as non-participating countries. In East Asia, the war stimulated the further rise of Japan as the leading power in the region during the war, yet also its radicalization and social protests after 1918. In China and Korea it stimulated nationalist eruptions, demanding freedom and equality for the (semi)colonized countries and the people living within their borders. All in all, the present book offers a consice introduction of the history of the First World War and its impact in East Asia.
This study examines the production and consumption of knowledge in early modern/modern Korea through an analysis of textbooks, newspapers and media, government policies, official documents, and autobiographies to mine the sites of contestation and struggle in education and intellectual history.
A global history of human rights in a world of nations that grant rights to some while denying them to others Once dominated by vast empires, the world is now divided into some 200 independent countries that proclaim human rights—a transformation that suggests that nations and human rights inevitably develop together. But the reality is far more problematic, as Eric Weitz shows in this compelling global history of the fate of human rights in a world of nation-states. Through vivid histories from virtually every continent, A World Divided describes how, since the eighteenth century, nationalists have established states that grant human rights to some people while excluding others, setting the stage for many of today’s problems, from the refugee crisis to right-wing nationalism. Only the advance of international human rights will move us beyond a world divided between those who have rights and those who don't.
North Korea continues to be a country of great concern internationally, where future developments are uncertain, especially as a result of the succession to the leadership of Kim Jong-un following the death of Kim Jong-il. It is also a country which is relatively unknown and relatively little studied. This book provides a comprehensive, detailed survey of economic and political developments in the last few years. As such it provides many insights into the current trends which are likely to shape the country’s future direction.
This book provides full details of contemporary economic and political developments in North Korea since late 2005. Key topics covered include: the succession; family visits; human rights; nuclear capability and intentions; recent initiatives in international relations, and relations with the United States; and adverse economic and social conditions.