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Book Review Essays
A Concise History of Korea
From Antiquity to the Present, Second Edition
By Michael J. Seth
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016
626 pages, ISBN: 978-1442235175, paperback
Reviewed by Mary Connor
M
ichael Seth’s A Concise Histo-
ry of Korea: From Antiquity to
the Present provides readers
with a clear, comprehensive, objective,
and illuminating survey of Korean his-
tory from ancient times to the present.
Readers will be inspired by Seth’s exten-
sive knowledge of Korean history com-
bined with his understanding of East
Asian and world history. Throughout,
comparisons are drawn between devel-
opments on the Korean peninsula and
those in neighboring regions, especial-
ly China and Japan. Seth discusses how
the Koreas became so radically different
from one another after centuries of being unified. One of the great mer-
its of the text is the presentation of each stage of Korean history within
a global context; subsequently, readers will have a deeper understanding
of social, cultural, and political history not only in East Asia, but also
with other parts of the world. Responding to differing historiographical
issues, the author provides objective responses to what he thinks may
be plausible answers. Another important dimension is his inclusion of
information based on new research and events as recent as 2015. Addi-
tional features of the book include historical maps, primary source entries
within each chapter, and a very useful annotated bibliography in English.
Educators of Asian and world history on the high school and college
levels will benefit from reading this well-written and balanced text on Ko-
rean history and culture that offers both regional and global perspectives.
Teachers of United States history will profit from reading about the role
the United States has played in Korea prior to the division of the peninsula,
the Korean War, and postwar policies in Korea compared to those in Japan.
All readers will be interested in how South Korea made unprecedented
achievements in both democratic and economic development while North
Korea became one of the world’s most totalitarian and impoverished coun-
tries in the world.
A Concise History of Korea is timely for its coverage of Korea com-
bined with regional and global perspectives. In July 2016, the California
Department of Education approved an updated and revised history–social
science framework that includes more than twenty references to Korean
history and culture. The previous framework only mentioned Korea four
times. Since the leading textbook publishers will incorporate these addi-
tions in their secondary textbooks, educators will be bringing Korean his-
tory and culture into their classrooms to a greater extent.
In the first chapter, readers become immediately aware of Seth’s knowl-
edge of Korean, regional, and world history. He writes that
It was the weakening and collapse of the Chinese Empire in the third
and fourth centuries that gave the indigenous people free rein to
develop autonomous states that were culturally distinct from China.
The process was analogous to contemporary developments at the other
end of Eurasia when the declining Roman Empire disintegrated in
Western Europe, allowing tribal people to develop their own heavily
Roman-influenced states. (49)
When Seth writes about Silla’s “cultural brilliance” in the eighth century, he
notes that at the same time there were flourishing cultural developments
in China with the Tang Dynasty, the Nara period in Japan, the Abbasid
Caliphate in Baghdad, and the Carolingian Empire in Western Europe. He
concludes this discussion by writing that
Historians do not understand all the links among the societies of the Old World,
but they are increasingly appreciating just how interconnected they were. Korea
geographically on the periphery of Eurasia was not only embedded in the larger
historical developments of East Asia, but a part of the larger Afro-Eurasian
world. (78)
When Seth writes about the Koryŏ Dynasty, he comments on how the
introduction of the civil examination system helped “transform the aristoc-
racy into highly educated service nobility” that contributed to the institu-
tional stability and continuity of the Korean state and ruling elite for cen-
turies (105). He compares the stability of Korea with the hereditary class
in Indian states and the inherited aristocracies of Europe and Japan. When
leaders of the hereditary class failed, power struggles and uncertainty would
occur. Seth also compares the examination system in Korea with that of Chi-
na. The Chinese examination system was open to commoners; consequently,
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