Reassessing the Park Chung Hee Era, 1961-1979: Development, Political Thought, Democracy, and Cultural Influence

Description:

The Republic of Korea achieved a double revolution in the second half of the twentieth century. In just over three decades, South Korea transformed itself from an underdeveloped, agrarian country into an affluent, industrialized one. At the same time, democracy replaced a long series of military authoritarian regimes. These historic changes began under President Park Chung Hee, who seized power through a military coup in 1961 and ruled South Korea until his assassination on October 26, 1979. While the state's dominant role in South Korea's rapid industrialization is widely accepted, the degree to which Park was personally responsible for changing the national character remains hotly debated. This book examines the rationale and ideals behind Park's philosophy of national development in order to evaluate the degree to which the national character and moral values were reconstructed.

Brief description: Hyung-A Kim is associate professor of Korean history and politics at Australian National University. She is the author of Korea's Development under Park Chung Hee: Rapid Industrialization, 1961-1979 (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004); and coeditor of Reassessing the Park Chung Hee Era, 1961-1979: Development, Political Thought, Democracy and Cultural Influence (Center for Korea Studies, University of Washington, 2011).

Review Quotes:

"Wider in perspective . . . Kim and Sorensen's book includes contributions by historians, an anthropologist, a literary critic and even a former CEO of POSCO. . . [and] chapters on the labor movement and rural society, and . . . popular mentalities under . . .'compressed modernization.'."