Korea: A Very Short Introduction
Korea: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Michael J. Seth

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-01-23

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 0192566512

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Having spent centuries in the shadows of its neighbours China and Japan, Korea is now the object of considerable interest for radically different reasons— the South as an economic success story and for its vibrant popular culture; the North as the home to one of the world's most repressive regimes, at once both bizarre and menacing. This Very Short Introduction explores the history, culture, and society of a deeply divided region. Michael Seth considers what it means to be Korean, and analyses how the various peoples of the Korean peninsula became one of the world's most homogeneous nations, before exploring how this nation evolved, in a single lifetime, into today's sharply contrasting societies. He also discusses how Korea fits into the larger narrative of both East Asian and world history, economically, politically, and socially. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Modern Japan: A Very Short Introduction
Modern Japan: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Christopher Goto-Jones

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2009-04-23

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0191578940

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Japan is arguably today's most successful industrial economy, combining almost unprecedented affluence with social stability and apparent harmony. Japanese goods and cultural products are consumed all over the world, ranging from animated movies and computer games all the way through to cars, semiconductors, and management techniques. In many ways, Japan is an icon of the modern world, and yet it remains something of an enigma to many, who see it as a confusing montage of the alien and the familiar, the ancient and modern. The aim of this Very Short Introduction is to explode the myths and explore the reality of modern Japan - by taking a concise look at its history, economy, politics, and culture. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

South Korea in the Fast Lane
South Korea in the Fast Lane

Author: Young-Iob Chung

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-07-20

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 019029602X

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After having been a Japanese colony for more than 35 years until 1945, the miraculous economic development in the southern half of the Korean peninsula has multiplied the nation's output nearly 38 times and expanded per capita income by 16 times from $778 to $12,422 (in year 2000 prices) and transformed from basically an agrarian economy to that of a major industrial power, which is now considered one of a dozen or so of most industrialized countries in the world, during the 43-year period between 1953 and 1996. This book is a study of development of the South Korean economy from the time of the cessation of the Korean War to date, based on available data with minimal historical description, focusing on investment, the sources and means of capital formation, which is one of the most critical factors that contributed to economic development, and the government role of in them for economic growth and structural changes. The approach in this study is more analytical (without being mathematical, statistical, or technical, but with supporting quantitative data) than historical. There are a number of studies on some aspects of capital formation and economic development in short articles, but there is no comprehensive study/analysis/book of capital formation and economic development of South Korea since the Korean War, other than this authors comprehensive study of capital formation and economic transformation of Korea before 1945 (1876-1945). Not only this book fills the void of study of the subject after the Korean War but it also complement my first volume. This study reveals a number of significant, though perhaps not all unique, patterns and characteristics of capital formation and economic development of South Korea. The combination of circumstances, approaches, and experiences in the country was in many respects unique in comparison to many developing and developed countries, including many Asian countries, such as Japan and China.

Asia's Next Giant
Asia's Next Giant

Author: Alice Hoffenberg Amsden

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780195076035

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South Korea has been quietly growing into a major economic force, even challenging Japan in some industries. This growth may be seen as an example of "late industrialization" and this book discusses this point.

Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction
Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Robert C. Allen

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2011-09-15

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 019162053X

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Why are some countries rich and others poor? In 1500, the income differences were small, but they have grown dramatically since Columbus reached America. Since then, the interplay between geography, globalization, technological change, and economic policy has determined the wealth and poverty of nations. The industrial revolution was Britain's path breaking response to the challenge of globalization. Western Europe and North America joined Britain to form a club of rich nations by pursuing four polices-creating a national market by abolishing internal tariffs and investing in transportation, erecting an external tariff to protect their fledgling industries from British competition, banks to stabilize the currency and mobilize domestic savings for investment, and mass education to prepare people for industrial work. Together these countries pioneered new technologies that have made them ever richer. Before the Industrial Revolution, most of the world's manufacturing was done in Asia, but industries from Casablanca to Canton were destroyed by western competition in the nineteenth century, and Asia was transformed into 'underdeveloped countries' specializing in agriculture. The spread of economic development has been slow since modern technology was invented to fit the needs of rich countries and is ill adapted to the economic and geographical conditions of poor countries. A few countries - Japan, Soviet Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and perhaps China - have, nonetheless, caught up with the West through creative responses to the technological challenge and with Big Push industrialization that has achieved rapid growth through investment coordination. Whether other countries can emulate the success of East Asia is a challenge for the future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Kim Jong Un and the Bomb
Kim Jong Un and the Bomb

Author: Ankit Panda

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0190060360

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Kim Jong Un and the Bomb tells the story of how North Korea-once derided in the 1970s as a "fourth-rate pipsqueak" of a country by President Richard Nixon-came to credibly threaten the American homeland with a thermonuclear bomb atop an intercontinental-range ballistic missile by November 2017.

The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction
The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Robert J. McMahon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-02-25

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0192603272

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Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Cold War dominated international life from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But how did the conflict begin? Why did it move from its initial origins in Postwar Europe to encompass virtually every corner of the globe? And why, after lasting so long, did the war end so suddenly and unexpectedly? Robert McMahon considers these questions and more, as well as looking at the legacy of the Cold War and its impact on international relations today. The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction is a truly international history, not just of the Soviet-American struggle at its heart, but also of the waves of decolonization, revolutionary nationalism, and state formation that swept the non-Western world in the wake of World War II. McMahon places the 'Hot Wars' that cost millions of lives in Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere within the larger framework of global superpower competition. He shows how the United States and the Soviet Union both became empires over the course of the Cold War, and argues that perceived security needs and fears shaped U.S. and Soviet decisions from the beginning—far more, in fact, than did their economic and territorial ambitions. He unpacks how these needs and fears were conditioned by the divergent cultures, ideologies, and historical experiences of the two principal contestants and their allies. Covering the years 1945-1990, this second edition uses recent scholarship and newly available documents to offer a fuller analysis of the Vietnam War, the changing global politics of the 1970s, and the end of the Cold War. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A Concise History of Korea
A Concise History of Korea

Author: Michael J. Seth

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2006-07-27

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0742574717

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This engaging text provides a concise history of Korea from the beginning of human settlement in the region through the late nineteenth century, equally emphasizing social, cultural, and political history. Students will be especially drawn to descriptions of everyday life for both elite and non-elite members of society during various historical periods. A Concise History of Korea emphasizes how Korean history can be understood as part of an interactive sphere that includes three basic areas: China, Japan, and the Manchurian/Central Asian region. Historical maps illustrate the changes in the region over time. The annotated bibliography of works in English is a useful addition to this clear and comprehensive Korean history.

Selling the Korean War
Selling the Korean War

Author: Steven Casey

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-03-21

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 0199719179

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How presidents spark and sustain support for wars remains an enduring and significant problem. Korea was the first limited war the U.S. experienced in the contemporary period - the first recent war fought for something less than total victory. In Selling the Korean War , Steven Casey explores how President Truman and then Eisenhower tried to sell it to the American public. Based on a massive array of primary sources, Casey subtly explores the government's selling activities from all angles. He looks at the halting and sometimes chaotic efforts of Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, Dwight Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles. He examines the relationships that they and their subordinates developed with a host of other institutions, from Congress and the press to Hollywood and labor. And he assesses the complex and fraught interactions between the military and war correspondents in the battlefield theater itself. From high politics to bitter media spats, Casey guides the reader through the domestic debates of this messy, costly war. He highlights the actions and calculations of colorful figures, including Senators Robert Taft and JHoseph McCarthy, and General Douglas MacArthur. He details how the culture and work routines of Congress and the media influenced political tactics and daily news stories. And he explores how different phases of the war threw up different problems - from the initial disasters in the summer of 1950 to the giddy prospects of victory in October 1950, from the massive defeats in the wake of China's massive intervention to the lengthy period of stalemate fighting in 1952 and 1953.

Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey
Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey

Author: Michael E. Robinson

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2007-04-30

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 0824831748

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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 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.