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North Korea: A History
In this key textbook, Michael J. Seth offers an excellent synthesis of existing scholarship, including a thorough examination of contemporary sources. Seth masterfully traces how North Korea gradually transformed itself from a Soviet-style socialist state to an ultra-nationalist, dynastic one, illuminating this journey with an engaging understanding of the political, ideological, economic and social forces at play. Throughout, Seth adds a rich dimension by placing North Korean history into broader global perspective and considering the implications for the future of the country.
With a helpful glossary and an exhaustive bibliography, this clear and accessible overview is an ideal text for students of North Korean history, and for anyone with an interest in the evolution of this uncommon nation.
With a helpful glossary and an exhaustive bibliography, this clear and accessible overview is an ideal text for students of North Korean history, and for anyone with an interest in the evolution of this uncommon nation.
- GenresEbooks
300 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 11, 2026
In order to save my time I spent a long while looking for a North Korea book that wasn't some kind of activist propagandistic screed or maudlin human rights memoir. I just wanted straight up narrative history.
It was surprisingly hard to find but it does exist. This is exactly that book.
Because of the lack of information for outsiders, the details are much less forthcoming the closer you get to the present, but this didnt bother me because that is what I am more familiar with. I really wanted the deets on Kim Il Sung's reign and we have that here in spades.
It was surprisingly hard to find but it does exist. This is exactly that book.
Because of the lack of information for outsiders, the details are much less forthcoming the closer you get to the present, but this didnt bother me because that is what I am more familiar with. I really wanted the deets on Kim Il Sung's reign and we have that here in spades.
June 16, 2021
While the subject matter is fascinating and dealt with fairly and even-handedly, and clearly with no shortage of expertise, it's let down in places by a lack of embellishment or insight - more often than not, it becomes a matter of "this happened, then this happened, and then this", which can be a slog to get through.
The editing/proof-reading in places is appalling, which doesn't help. Incorrect pluralisation, missing, incorrect or superfluous conjunctions render some sentences difficult to make sense of at all.
The editing/proof-reading in places is appalling, which doesn't help. Incorrect pluralisation, missing, incorrect or superfluous conjunctions render some sentences difficult to make sense of at all.
July 20, 2019
Excellent up-to-date (2018) overview of North Korean history, yet marred by many serious misspellings and other grammar issues, as well as some poor word choices and formatting; read like a rough first draft of a dissertation, which surprised me given the author. Not sure if these were problems unique to the library edition I read, but I will be waiting on picking up my own copy until I can be sure it's not a general misprint.
June 19, 2018
It can be quite hard to find an account of the DPRK that is not skewed. Western views and dissidents can offer interesting but openly biased and hostile accounts of the state. This book offered a balanced account that gave credit and criticism where due.
May 28, 2019
It's good for teaching an undergraduate course, though I would question some of his word choices (and maybe sources).
December 17, 2019
An incredibly well-written book and extremely interesting. One of those books that I didn’t want to put down.
October 30, 2022
In this book, Seth offers a survey of North Korean history from its origins in the colonial period to the present period under Kim Jong-un. The book argues that “the goal of the North Korean regime was to create a truly sovereign, militarily strong, prosperous state that could restore Korea’s place in the world as a modern progressive society, a goal that was shared by almost all Koreans on both sides of the DMZ, and that it differed from the South only in the path it chose to that end”.
Relevance 5/5
The book traces the path North Korea took in pursuit of its modernization goal, gradually transforming itself from a Soviet-style socialist state to an ultra-nationalist, dynastic dictatorship. What is more important, the book also explains the role of both the leadership and non-elites in shaping this evolution. Placing North Korea in a broad historical and comparative perspective, this is the only comprehensive general history of the country available in English so far (although Andrei Lankov’s book The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia contains a lot of similar evidence too). It is very timely and contains the most up-to-date information on North Korean history as it was published quite recently, in 2018. This allowed the author to reflect on the political and socio-economic changes that the new leadership introduced under Kim Jong-un.
Factuality 5/5
The book covers domestic and foreign policy, ideology, economics, social change and everyday life. In my opinion, this is an excellent academic introduction to the issues surrounding North Korea and the Korean peninsula today. I have not noticed any major factual mistakes in the book, although there are several typos (see below). What matters more is that the author offers a very rich bibliography and relies a lot on original Korean sources in his research unlike some of his Western colleagues.
Style & Structure – 4/5
The book is structured chronologically as any classical history textbook; it is very reader friendly. While this is a history textbook, it also targets a broader audience of readers. Hence, the language the author uses is not academically dry. The only issue I personally had with it that the first edition contains some spelling issues and typos. However, these small mistakes do not prevent you from concentrating on the main contents of the book.
Objectivity – 5/5
The author remains very objective in his coverage of both political and societal developments in North Korea throughout the book. He does not resort to angry Pyongyang-bashing (e.g., like Victor Cha) or sensationalist language (e.g., like John Sweeney). The narrative is very factual. In several places the author also tries to offer multiple explanations of how and why certain events happened (e.g., his analysis of Kim Il-sung-Kim Jong-il transition in Chapter 5).
Total 4.75/5
North Korea: A History is a successful attempt to help the outsiders better understand that reclusive and somewhat bizarre country. The book is a concise but yet very detailed account of North Korea’s contemporary history. Although Professor Seth is not a representative of some fancy Ivy League school, but his monograph can very well compete in quality with the publications of major American research centers and is absolutely worth reading.
Relevance 5/5
The book traces the path North Korea took in pursuit of its modernization goal, gradually transforming itself from a Soviet-style socialist state to an ultra-nationalist, dynastic dictatorship. What is more important, the book also explains the role of both the leadership and non-elites in shaping this evolution. Placing North Korea in a broad historical and comparative perspective, this is the only comprehensive general history of the country available in English so far (although Andrei Lankov’s book The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia contains a lot of similar evidence too). It is very timely and contains the most up-to-date information on North Korean history as it was published quite recently, in 2018. This allowed the author to reflect on the political and socio-economic changes that the new leadership introduced under Kim Jong-un.
Factuality 5/5
The book covers domestic and foreign policy, ideology, economics, social change and everyday life. In my opinion, this is an excellent academic introduction to the issues surrounding North Korea and the Korean peninsula today. I have not noticed any major factual mistakes in the book, although there are several typos (see below). What matters more is that the author offers a very rich bibliography and relies a lot on original Korean sources in his research unlike some of his Western colleagues.
Style & Structure – 4/5
The book is structured chronologically as any classical history textbook; it is very reader friendly. While this is a history textbook, it also targets a broader audience of readers. Hence, the language the author uses is not academically dry. The only issue I personally had with it that the first edition contains some spelling issues and typos. However, these small mistakes do not prevent you from concentrating on the main contents of the book.
Objectivity – 5/5
The author remains very objective in his coverage of both political and societal developments in North Korea throughout the book. He does not resort to angry Pyongyang-bashing (e.g., like Victor Cha) or sensationalist language (e.g., like John Sweeney). The narrative is very factual. In several places the author also tries to offer multiple explanations of how and why certain events happened (e.g., his analysis of Kim Il-sung-Kim Jong-il transition in Chapter 5).
Total 4.75/5
North Korea: A History is a successful attempt to help the outsiders better understand that reclusive and somewhat bizarre country. The book is a concise but yet very detailed account of North Korea’s contemporary history. Although Professor Seth is not a representative of some fancy Ivy League school, but his monograph can very well compete in quality with the publications of major American research centers and is absolutely worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews