Book is “A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present” by Michael J. Seth, 2nd. edition (2016). It’s very well-put-together and is incredibly fascinating. The Neolithic stuff at the beginning of the first chapter (“The Origins”) starts out a bit dull (kind of by necessity), but I was hooked by Chapter 2 (“The Period of the Three Kingdoms, Fourth Century to 676”). Genuinely fantastic and now one of my favorite nonfiction books I’ve ever read. (I made the mistake of not reading the Appendix on hangul romanization until very late into the book; don’t make my mistake if you read it too and don’t know hangul.)

What I especially loved were the excerpts of primary literature at the end of each chapter – political documents, poetry, etc. My favorite by far was a declaration of independence (see) signed in 1919 by Son Byong-hi and other progenitors of the March First Movement – positioned at the end of Chapter 10 “Colonial Korea, 1910 to 1945” and right before Chapter 11 “Division and War, 1945 to 1953”; it’s a genuine emotional gut-punch in that context.

Elephant in the room: I think it does a genuinely good job at fairly representing both South and North Korea in the final five chapters (one is the civil war; two parallel the Koreas post-civil war into the 1990s; and two parallel the Koreas from the 1990s to 2015). But even if you stop before modern times and only follow it to the end of the Yi dynasty, it’s completely captivating. Also, it helped me finally discover this gem.

Anyway, if there are any Koreans out there, I’ll write you a farewell letter in 2750.