A History of Korea (Macmillan Essential Histories, 44)

Like: a comprehensive history, clearly organized. Chronologically oriented.Dislike: a bit dry. The maps could have been better.It is, as part of the "Essential Series," in line and quite good.

It's a great book if you a looking for a broad view on Korean history. It doesn't dwell on details, mainly during ancient and medieval eras, but is well accomplished when dealing with more recent events.

A decent history that's easy to read, and offers a concise history of the long history of Korea.

For a Korean history book it is very good doesn't go too deep but doesn't really leave you wanting to know more, recommended

This is an excellent primer on Korean history. It is clear and concise in presenting such events and provides an excellent Korean perspective on the events while acknowledging other possible perspectives.

A bit boring, not suitable for children to read, the map can be better!

A concise history book that was perfect for my Korean history class

Hwang's book is basically ideal for undergraduates. He highlights a few thematically important issues and people in each chapter and does not get bogged down in minute details with a trillion names and dates.I used this textbook in fall of 2019 and almost all my students completed the short chapters (based on their uploaded reading discussions) and understood the content (which is written in approachable and straight-forward language). I could then start class without wasting too much time explaining the basics. I could expand on interesting topics, add some other issues related to our course but connected to that chapter, and have student discussion. We stopped as the Japanese colonized Korea, as modern Korean history is a different course, but having read the rest of the book, I decided to use it as one of the texts for modern Korean history next time I teach that, as well.As a final note, Hwang uses the Korean government's Romanization (RR Romanization) which is what most information online uses, this will make it easier for students to parse and also easily search. All other major textbooks that deal with pre-modern Korea are still using the outdated M-R system that at this point elders in Western academia are trying to force on a world that has, with the exception of them, already abandoned.

Really awful print design with small dense text shrunk on a page of thick white margins. Wide margins are fine but not at the expense of making the text unreadable. Very poor design and layout. Needs larger text to make it readable. I returned it immediately - I'm not going to struggle with badly designed text layout.

Excellent book with lots of interesting and well presented information

Incredibly detailed and easy to read. This is a very good book on Korean history.

Well written