Park Chung-Hee: From Poverty to Power, Paperback

How do we explain Park Chung-Hee's determination to push through the coup d' tat in 1961 and the modernization programs afterward? How did his family's poverty and his experiences in Manchuria, Japan, and China affect his later career as South Korea's leader? How would he have answered his critics' charge that he was a pro-Japanese collaborator and a Communist renegade? How can we explain his harsh suppression of domestic dissidents and opponents? In trying to answer these and other questions, Lee presents a kaleidoscopic history of modern Korea from the 1890s to the 1960s. Like Park, the author also grew up under Japanese rule and lived in Manchuria, where Park spent more than three years. This meticulously researched book uses Korean, Japanese, and English sources to put Park's life into historical context.

Chong-Sik Lee's previous works include The Politics of Korean Nationalism (1963), Communism in Korea (coauthored with Robert A. Scalapino, 1973, and the winner of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation award of the American Political Science Association for the best book of the previous year on politics, government and international relations), Revolutionary Struggle in Manchuria (1983), and Japan and Korea: the Political Dimension (1985). He has also published four book-length biographies of Korean leaders. He is currently Professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, and Eminent Professor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea.