Description

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Winner:
2016 Kim Dae Jung Scholar's Prize for Contributions to Peace, Democracy and Human Rights on the Korean Peninsula

Using social movements as a prism to illuminate the oft-hidden history of 20th-century Korea, this book provides detailed analysis of major uprisings that have patterned the country’s politics and society. From the 1894 Tonghak uprising through the March 1, 1919, independence movement and anti-Japanese resistance, a direct line is traced to the popular opposition to U.S. division of Korea after World War II. The overthrow of Syngman Rhee in 1960, resistance to Park Chung-hee, the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, as well as student, labor, and feminist movements are all recounted with attention to their economic and political contexts. This is the first of two volumes that emphasizes the effects of grassroots political movements in different countries of Asia. 

About the Author

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George Katsiaficas is a longtime activist for peace and justice—who was twice granted Fulbright fellowships—and the author of The Imagination of the New Left and The Subversion of Politics. He lives in Boston.

Praise For…

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“Finally, for the first time in English, we now have a comprehensive overview of the remarkable waves of popular uprisings that have taken place in South Korea in the 20th century. With this volume, Katsiaficas challenges the eurocentrism of social movement scholarship and provides a radical reappraisal of the role of mass popular uprisings in contemporary history.”  —Eddie Yuen, coeditor, Confronting Capitalism

"Thirteen chapters explore major Korean uprisings from the 1894 Rice War to the 2008 Candlelight Protest, Jeju and Yeosun Insurrections, and the overthrow, assassination, and incarceration of Korean presidents. Recommended . . . it fills a void in English-language studies on Korea." —CHOICE

"The first volume of Asia's Unknown Uprisings is an important book [and] has been a long time coming. The scholarship and pen of George Katsiaficas has made it worth the wait." —www.counterpunch.org

"George Katsiaficas, the prolific student of mass movements, offers an ambitious and well documented study of modern South Korean social movements." —Michael Munk, Socialism and Democracy

"Aided by insider accounts, [the book] offers a rich narrative of the unfolding events with rare insight into the inner dynamics and the emotional responses that characterize rare moments of insurgency." —Sun-Chul Kim, The Journal of Asian Studies

"The first volume of George Katsiaficas’ Asia’s Unknown Uprisings is a comprehensive analysis of both the major and minor social movements that have shaped South Korea’s long twentieth century." —John Eperjesi, Korea Journal