"The first English-language history of Korea that offers a balanced, comprehensive overview reflecting recent East Asian and Western scholarship. While popular trends, cuisine, and long-standing political tension have made Korea familiar in some ways to a vast English-speaking world, those who follow K-Pop or North Korea's nuclear weapons program have little familiarity with the region's recorded history of some two millennia. And for most, 'East Asia' still means China and Japan, with South Korea lost somewhere in the middle. Korea: A History addresses general readers, providing an up-to-date, accessible overview of Korean history from antiquity to the present. Eugene Y. Park draws on original-language sources and the most up-to-date synthesis of recent East Asian and Western-language scholarship to provide a history unlike anything currently available. This book expands still-limited English-language discussions on premodern Korea, offering rigorous and compelling analyses of Korea's modernization while discussing LGBT, ethnic minority, and various historical groups not frequently included in Korean histories. Overall, Park is able to break new ground on questions and debates that have been central to the field of Korean studies since its inception"-- Provided by publisher.

Part I. The classical period. The dawn of Korean civilization to 391 CE --The Three Kingdoms, Puyæo, and Kaya, 391-676 -- The northern and southern states, 676-918 -- Part II. The post-classical period. Early Koryæo, 918-1146 -- Late Koryæo, 1146-1392 -- Part III. The early modern era. Early Chosæon, 1392-1567 -- The mid-Chosæon crisis and recovery, 1567-1724 -- Late Chosæon renovation and decline, 1724-1864 -- Part IV. The late modern era. Reform, imperialism and nationalism, 1864-1910 -- Japanese occupation, 1910-1945 -- Establishment of two Korean states, 1945-1960 -- Growth and divergence, 1960-1980 -- Toward détente, 1980-2000 -- Recent developments.