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New Literature on the History of Korea

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A History of Korea. By HenthornWilliam E.. New York: The Free Press, 1971. xiv, 226 pp. Appendix, Bibliography, Index. $9.95.

The History of Korea. By Pow-keySohn, Chol-choonKim and Yi-supHong. Seoul: Korean National Commission for UNESCO, 1970. vi, 363 pp. Appendix, Bibliography, Glossary, Index. $6.00 in Korea.

The History of Korea. By HanWoo-keun. Translated By Kyong-shikLee and edited by Grafton K. Mintz. Honolulu: East West Center Press, 1972. xii, 551 pp. Appendix, Bibliography, Index. $15.00.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Benjamin H. Hazard
Affiliation:
California State University, San José
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Abstract

Since the appearance of Hulbert's The History of Korea in 1905 there has been no really new history of Korea in English based on twentieth century research until the publication of a translation from the Japanese of Chōsen no shirube (1963) based on research done in the early years of the Japanese occupation of Korea. In the following year Wagner's and Choc's A Syllabus of Korean History (1964) appeared. Five years later a translation of Hatada's History of Korea (1969) appeared. The Japanese edition was published in 1951. Since 1969 four new histories of Korea in English have been published. From the standpoint of readability W. E. Henthorn's A History of Korea (1971) is the best of the four, but it is choppy in organization. It covers Korea from its prehistory to the opening years of the twentieth century. The Koryŏ period and the Yi dynasty to 1800 are well done, but the post-1800 material is too sketchy to be adequate. Sohn Kim and Hong's The History of Korea (1970), except for the sections written by Dr. Sohn, was translated from the Korean. It is a sound history with emphasis on political and social institutions and has the best coverage of prehistoric Korea to date. It shares with Han's The History of Korea (East West Center edition, 1972, first printing in Korea, 1971) their common fault of treating the history of the Republic of Korea with such brevity as to be devoid of any depth. Han's work, also a translation, complements the other two with its slightly different emphasis on political history. B. Y. Choy's Korea: A History does not compare in scholarship with the other three histories. Its treatment of traditional Korea is shallow and sketchy. Choy does, however, devote more than half of the book to the post-1945 period, but the treatment can not be termed adequate.

Type
Review Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1972

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