Discusses Korean history and culture from the earliest times to the student revolution of 1960.

Translation of: Hanʼguksa sillon. Includes maps of: Geometric Design Pottery Sites in Korea (Neolithic Age, ca. 3000-800 B.C.); Designless Pottery Sites in Korea (Bronze Age,ca. 800-300 B.C.); Korea at the Time of Wiman Choson (2nd Century B.C.); Korea in the Confederated Kingdoms Period (ca. 1st-3rd Centuries A.D.); Korea at the Height of Koguryo Expansion in the 5th Century; Silla under King Chinhung (540-576); Unification Struggle among the Three Kingdoms (7th Century); Silla and Parhae (Administrative Divisions); Korea in the Later Three Kingdoms Period (Late 9th to Early 10th Centuries); Five Circuits and Two Border Regions of Koryo (11th Century); Koryo's Northern Frontier Region (Late 10th to Early 12th Centuries); Koryo and the Mongols (13th Century); Choson's Eight Provinces and Regional Military Commands (15th Century); Six Garrison Forts and Four Yalu Outposts (ca. 1450); Hideyoshi Invasion (1592-1598); Foreign Disturbances of 1866 and 1871; Lines of March of the Tonghak Peasant Army (1894); March First 1919 Independence Movement - Major Sites of Popular Demonstrations. Includes index.

Communal societies of prehistoric times -- Walled-town states and confederated kingdoms -- Aristocratic societies under monarchical rule -- Fashioning of an authoritarian monarchy -- Age of powerful gentry families -- Hereditary aristocratic order of Koryŏ -- Rule by the military -- Emergence of the literati --Creation of a Yangban society -- Rise of the neo-Confucian literati -- Emergence of landed farmers and wholesale merchants -- Instability of the Yangban status system and the outbreak of popular uprisings -- Growth of the forces of enlightenment -- Nationalist stirrings and imperialist aggression -- Development of the nationalist movement -- Beginnings of democracy.