Having spent centuries in the shadows of its neighbours China and Japan, Korea is now the object of considerable interest for radically different reasons? the South as an economic success story and for its vibrant popular culture; the North as the home to one of the world's most repressive regimes, at once both bizarre and menacing. This Very Short Introduction explores the history, culture, and society of a deeply divided region. Michael Seth considers what it means to be Korean, and analyses how the various peoples of the Korean peninsula became one of the world's most homogeneous nations, before exploring how this nation evolved, in a single lifetime, into today's sharply contrasting societies. He also discusses how Korea fits into the larger narrative of both East Asian and world history, economically, politically, and socially. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Michael J. Seth is a professor of East Asian and world history at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He has lived and worked in South Korea and is the author of Education Fever: Society, Politics and the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea (University of Hawaii Press, 2002) and North Korea: A History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). He is also the editor of the Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean History (Routledge, 2016).