North Korea: Another Country -

Bruce Cumings

The New Press

2003

160 páginas

5h 20m

ISBN-10: 156584873X

Few books of political commentary are as insightful, outspoken, and even personable as this one. The author feels no obligation to keep his opinions to himself (unlike many commentators, who strive so hard for neutrality that they wind up not saying anything of substance). "I have no sympathy for the North, which is the author of most of its own troubles," he writes at one point, although he does allude to the "significant responsibility that all Americans share for the garrison state that emerged on the ashes of our truly terrible destruction of the North half a century ago." He also asserts, flatly contradicting the prevailing wisdom, that the Korean War, whose armistice was signed 50 years ago, is still the defining event of modern-day North Korea. The book is full of assertions that will challenge readers to reconsider several of their conceptions of contemporary history. It's also, and this is most unusual for a book of this nature, occasionally funny or even sarcastic, especially in its criticism of media responses to North Korea. A fresh, original take on a subject of growing international importance. David Pitt