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• W2258410014 abstract "After many years of no new survey narratives of Korean history, 2006 witnessed the publication of two such books. Both Keith Pratt's Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea and Michael Seth's A Concise History of Korea: From the Neolithic Period through the Nineteenth Century provide the general reader and college-level student with readable and nuanced narratives of Korean history. If there is a strength to each, it is in providing the reader with a strong sense of the evolution of Korean culture within its East Asian context, both taking pains to chronicle and discuss the Korean construction of a particularly unique cultural identity on the doorsteps of its larger and better-known neighbors. Too often, general readers of Korean history posit Korea's uniqueness in the face of heavy cultural influence from China but then simply state that this or that is a “Korean” version of Buddhism, neo-Confucianism, and so on. Pratt and Seth labor to provide the details that illumine just how borrowed institutions, ideas, artistic styles, and technologies were adapted into Korean society and merged with indigenous patterns to create a unique blending.The more comprehensive of the two volumes is Pratt's Everlasting Flower. Pratt provides a narrative that divides Korean history into two parts: Half the book deals with early origins, the Three Kingdoms, and the Unified Silla, Koryŏ, and Chosŏn periods up to 1800, and the remainder deals with post-1800 developments, including the last century of Chosŏn rule, the colonial period, and post–World War II Korea. In my mind, the first half of the book is a more successful blending of political narrative with a strong cultural historical approach. Pratt builds an understanding of key issues in Korean history—the formation of the state, kingship, and class structure—while integrating the evolution of these institutions with a nuanced and compelling discussion of Korean cultural construction. Indeed, it is the details of cultural evolution that distinguish this volume from preceding general histories of Korea written in English. This strength is no doubt attributable to Pratt's key expertise in art and music. The addition of a discussion of the latter are fascinating and a most welcome addition to a survey text.The volume is richly illustrated (more traditional images and themes than post-1900), and each illustration is accompanied by a “picture essay.” These picture essays provide a pause in the flow of the text and illustrate in more detail a particular point or theme from the narrative. These essays are very effective and one of the most outstanding features of the book. The detail provided helps the reader appreciate particular aspects of thought, art, architecture, religion, and music. Pratt's experience compiling his earlier Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary with Richard Rutt pays major dividends here.If there is a shortcoming to Pratt's volume, it would be the coverage of the post–World War II period, which is handled in one concluding chapter. Again, this is not the author's forte, but there is a noticeable change in the tone of the text, with more material abstracted in seemingly shorthand fashion. In my mind, this ending chapter does not do justice to the volume. It is always difficult to end such a sweeping survey, but finishing as it does with sections on “Evolution and Applications of Culture” and “Cultural In-Filling” introducing the most recent cultural developments, which leads, in turn, to a three-page conclusion, makes for a rather abrupt ending. More in the way of summary would have greatly increased the value of the narrative.Michael Seth's A Concise History of Korea avoids the problem of what to do with the voluminous record of the twentieth century by concluding the book at the end of the Chosŏn period in 1876 with the Kanghwa Treaty. This book is a great addition to our arsenal of materials for teaching about Korea. Clearly, it could stand alone as a text for a course on traditional Korea. Whereas Pratt's history leans toward the cultural, Seth's treatment is notable for its balance between political, social, and cultural history. I found particularly informative his treatment of early history to the end of Unified Silla. This is quite a bit more attention than is usually given the early periods of Korean history, and I welcome its somewhat more extended exegesis, this in spite of the much more limited resource base from which to work. Throughout, the text is enlivened with biographical detail and descriptions (where something can be said) of the lives of aristocrats and commoners. Overall the writing is clear, if a bit less compelling than Pratt's more fluid prose. Seth also includes short examples of primary documents at the end of each chapter; while interesting, it is difficult to understand why these rather than others have been so placed. The volume also contains a very useful annotated bibliography—useful in the sense that the English-language literature on early Korean is less known and accessible to teachers and readers alike.One bone I might pick with the content (and this might be said of Pratt's treatment as well) is both authors seem to make more of the tributary system in East Asia than is warranted. Indeed, throughout its history the Korean state has engaged when necessary in ritually subordinate relations with China. But as Seth at least points out, these relations were dominated both by realpolitik, as well as by Korean's own cultural pretensions. The Ming tributary system was a fleeting affair in formal terms. And recent histories of traditional Chinese foreign policy support a view of a much more complex handling of interstate relations than might be portrayed by referencing the tributary system alone. In sum, however, these books are welcome additions to the growing literature on traditional Korea. They both would make outstanding texts for college courses, and the interested general reader will also be well served." @default.
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• W2258410014 title "Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea. By Keith Pratt. London: Reaktion Books, 2006. 320 pp. $34.95 (cloth); $27.00 (paper). - A Concise History of Korea: From the Neolithic Period through the Nineteenth Century. By Michael J. Seth. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 257 pp. $27.95 (paper)." @default.
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