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대한민국은 왜?
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January 9, 2022
First book of 2022 goal. Probably a good idea to leave short notes.
Good intro and overview of Korean history since independence, though the author would undoubtedly put independence in quotation marks. The book goes through various political issues through the lens of history and political economy of colonialism and anti-communism. It’s quite eye-opening to see the good and the bad history of Christianity and how it intertwines in the political arena of South Korea, almost resembling that of the US. This ranges from Christianity giving hope of freedom and equality in the 1800s and leading protests against Japanese colonization to American Christian leaders endorsing Japanese legitimacy and post-independence Christian leaders persecuting anyone against the US and for unity through red scare tactics. Of course there are a variety of Christians in the spectrum here, but it is hard to deny that Christianity was too mixed with the liberalism of the west and the cold war, leading to some churches being home to young right-wing terrorist groups that the South Korean gov’t would employ in violent suppressions and massacres of their own people (제주 4.3 사건).
It’s definitely possible I change my opinion for this book as I continue to read more into modern Korean history. Also the book unfortunately loses quality after the first half. It’s acceptable for the author to be politically one-sided, but he starts lacking references and technical details, probably because he’s covering too many topics with such short time. Anyways, that’s my first review for 2022. If you read till here friends, thanks?
Good intro and overview of Korean history since independence, though the author would undoubtedly put independence in quotation marks. The book goes through various political issues through the lens of history and political economy of colonialism and anti-communism. It’s quite eye-opening to see the good and the bad history of Christianity and how it intertwines in the political arena of South Korea, almost resembling that of the US. This ranges from Christianity giving hope of freedom and equality in the 1800s and leading protests against Japanese colonization to American Christian leaders endorsing Japanese legitimacy and post-independence Christian leaders persecuting anyone against the US and for unity through red scare tactics. Of course there are a variety of Christians in the spectrum here, but it is hard to deny that Christianity was too mixed with the liberalism of the west and the cold war, leading to some churches being home to young right-wing terrorist groups that the South Korean gov’t would employ in violent suppressions and massacres of their own people (제주 4.3 사건).
It’s definitely possible I change my opinion for this book as I continue to read more into modern Korean history. Also the book unfortunately loses quality after the first half. It’s acceptable for the author to be politically one-sided, but he starts lacking references and technical details, probably because he’s covering too many topics with such short time. Anyways, that’s my first review for 2022. If you read till here friends, thanks?
Displaying 1 of 1 review