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Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions (review)

have already given a few examples of this, but is worth reiterating that the majority of contributors simply jump to unwarranted (or at least unexplored) conclusions about whom or what is to blame for South Korea’s trouble in adjusting to the various forces of globalization. How do we know, for instance, that South Korea would have fared any better if the political leadership had chosen the strategy of deconcentration first, as Gills and Gills assert in their chapter? More to the point, perhaps, how do we know if this was even possible given the economic (and structurally-based) power of the chaebol—a power that has almost certainly been buttressed by the globalization of capital and production? Obviously, such counterfactual questions cannot be answered definitively. Still, it would have been nice to see a more substantial discussion of the authors’ reasoning. At the very least, more effort should have been made to address South Korea’s experiences in a stronger comparative context, in which the authors’ various propositions and conclusions could have been better “tested.” In sum, Korea’s Globalization is suited for a broad range of readers: from the specialist on Korean affairs to those readers with a general interest in globalization—although, on this latter point, I might note that none of the contributors provide any original analysis of globalization per se. While not an outstanding book, Korea’s Globalization’s does bring together a collection of generally solid and useful (albeit occasionally pedestrian) essays that cover a range of issues related to globalization’s impact on the South Korean state and society.