The Korean War: A History (Modern Library Chronicles)
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A bracing account of a war that lingers in our collective memory as both ambiguous and unjustly ignored
For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953 that has long been overshadowed by World War II, Vietnam, and the War on Terror. But as Bruce Cumings eloquently explains, for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long fight that still haunts contemporary events. And in a very real way, although its true roots and repercussions continue to be either misunderstood, forgotten, or willfully ignored, it is the war that helped form modern America’s relationship to the world.
With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents, Cumings reveals the war as it was actually fought. He describes its start as a civil war, preordained long before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected history of America’s post–World War II occupation of Korea, the untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and the powerful militaries organized and equipped by America and the Soviet Union in that divided land. He tells of the United States officially entering the action on the side of the South, and exposes as never before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides and the “oceans of napalm” dropped on the North by U.S. forces in a remarkably violent war that killed as many as four million Koreans, two thirds of whom were civilians.
In sobering detail, The Korean War chronicles a U.S. home front agitated by Joseph McCarthy, where absolutist conformity discouraged open inquiry and citizen dissent. Cumings incisively ties our current foreign policy back to Korea: an America with hundreds of permanent military bases abroad, a large standing army, and a permanent national security state at home, the ultimate result of a judicious and limited policy of containment evolving into an ongoing and seemingly endless global crusade.
Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and essential.
For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953 that has long been overshadowed by World War II, Vietnam, and the War on Terror. But as Bruce Cumings eloquently explains, for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long fight that still haunts contemporary events. And in a very real way, although its true roots and repercussions continue to be either misunderstood, forgotten, or willfully ignored, it is the war that helped form modern America’s relationship to the world.
With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents, Cumings reveals the war as it was actually fought. He describes its start as a civil war, preordained long before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected history of America’s post–World War II occupation of Korea, the untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and the powerful militaries organized and equipped by America and the Soviet Union in that divided land. He tells of the United States officially entering the action on the side of the South, and exposes as never before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides and the “oceans of napalm” dropped on the North by U.S. forces in a remarkably violent war that killed as many as four million Koreans, two thirds of whom were civilians.
In sobering detail, The Korean War chronicles a U.S. home front agitated by Joseph McCarthy, where absolutist conformity discouraged open inquiry and citizen dissent. Cumings incisively ties our current foreign policy back to Korea: an America with hundreds of permanent military bases abroad, a large standing army, and a permanent national security state at home, the ultimate result of a judicious and limited policy of containment evolving into an ongoing and seemingly endless global crusade.
Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and essential.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
A very good read, but not for those seeking a book about battles and combat. This book is comprised of a wide ranging set of essays on different aspects of the war, it's context, and it's legacy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Bruce Cummings is a courageous man: holding some uncomfortable truths in a country which is so uneasy about its imperialist policies is nothing short of heroic. Sure, he can expect all sorts of bigots to label him anti-American, communist-lover and other similar stuff. Yet, the book is well argued, with hard facts and that is its main merit. To give an insightful account on the significance of the Korean War on is 50th anniversary. But Cumings does more than this. He also gives a compassionate account of the importance of acknowledging the injury caused to the Korean people by US interference and imperialist policies and to acknowledge the responsibility the US still has in maintaining a fragile and dangerous status quo. This book is not so much about history, as an urgent call to engage, understand and accept that Korea belongs to Koreans and that it is up to them, wheteher South or North, to decide what they want with as little outside interference as possible. It is a call for the US to accept that the DPRK is another country and stop behaving in a colonial way that perpetuates a Cold War situation out of date. It is a call to learn to say sorry and correct past mistakes to pave the way for a brighter future that all of humanity deserves. Surely, those who prefer war mongering and gung ho imperial politics may find it weak, those who believe in peace will appreciate his effort. Well done Mr Cumings.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is a truly in depth and definitive guide to US imperialism in the east. An excellent companion to Blowback by Chalmers Johnson.
Although the author is not a marxist, socialist or communist, he openly criticises the imperialist and colonialist foreign policies of the US in such accurate detail they can not be refuted. Cuming's knowledge of the Korean war is profound and sensitive, most importantly to the Korean people. The author demonstrates himself as an anti imperialist and an anti racist- both excellent principles which make this work enlightening.
This book is an excellent read for all those studying Korea, North Korea and this history of Japanese imperialism in the region. The author's detail of the Korean war, although taking up a large part of the book, is not the entirety of the read. Cumings offers lots of other details about the history of the region and its relation to and interference with by US imperialism.
Im surprised there are not more reviews for this book. Not only is it well written, but it is politically excellent and a noteworthy study of Korea. Well done Bruce Cumings.
Although the author is not a marxist, socialist or communist, he openly criticises the imperialist and colonialist foreign policies of the US in such accurate detail they can not be refuted. Cuming's knowledge of the Korean war is profound and sensitive, most importantly to the Korean people. The author demonstrates himself as an anti imperialist and an anti racist- both excellent principles which make this work enlightening.
This book is an excellent read for all those studying Korea, North Korea and this history of Japanese imperialism in the region. The author's detail of the Korean war, although taking up a large part of the book, is not the entirety of the read. Cumings offers lots of other details about the history of the region and its relation to and interference with by US imperialism.
Im surprised there are not more reviews for this book. Not only is it well written, but it is politically excellent and a noteworthy study of Korea. Well done Bruce Cumings.
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