Korea since 1860
History 386A, Summer 2011
Instructor: Avram Agov
avramaam@hotmail.com
Office hours: 12:00-13:00, Wednesday and Friday or by appointment
Buchanan Tower, 1224
Required Text:
Bruce Cumings. Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History. New York: Norton, 1997.
Optional:
Michael Robinson. Korea’s Twentieth-century Odyssey. Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 2007.
Dae Sook Suh. Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1988.
Course Description:
This course will examine the political, economic and social history of Korea since the
late 19th century. Emphasis will be placed on a comparative understanding of Korea’s
place in East Asia and the international system. Topics include the “opening” of Korea,
the decline of the Yi Dynasty, Japanese imperialism and colonial rule, the emergence
of the two Koreas, the Korean War, and the relationship between authoritarian rule and
economic modernization.
Course Evaluation:
Attendance and Participation: 20%
Midterm exam (August 11): 35%
Final Exam (August 19): 45%
The Class will be divided into two discussion groups. Each group will meet once a week.
The course will be divided into three chronological periods, each covering a major era of
modern Korean history.
Group 1: 13:30-14:30; Group 2: 15:00-16:00
Discussion topics:
1. Origins of annexation of Korea (August 5);
2. Colonialism and modernity (August 12);
3. Division and the two models of development on the Korean peninsula (August 18).
Major themes and chronology:
Introduction: topics of Korean history
Part I: Dynastic decline and colonization, 1860-1910
Late Choson Korea; reforms of traditional order; opening of Korea
The Sino-Japanese War; reforms and rise of nationalism
The Russo-Japanese War; the Protectorate; annexation
Part II: Colonial Period, 1910-1945
Early colonial period; March First Movement
Korea in the Japanese colonial empire
Industry and wartime mobilization
Part III: The Two Koreas, 1945-1980s
Liberation; division and war
North and South Korea in the 1950s and the 1960s
North and South Korea in the 1970s and the 1980s