
The Korean War
A History
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Narrated by:
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David de Vries
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By:
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Bruce Cumings
About this listen
A bracing account of a war that lingers in our collective memory as both ambiguous and unjustly ignored.
For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953 that has long been overshadowed by World War II, Vietnam, and the War on Terror. But as Bruce Cumings eloquently explains, for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long fight that still haunts contemporary events. And in a very real way, although its true roots and repercussions continue to be either misunderstood, forgotten, or willfully ignored, it is the war that helped form modern America's relationship to the world.
With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents, Cumings reveals the war as it was actually fought. He describes its start as a civil war, preordained long before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan's occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected history of America's post-World War II occupation of Korea, the untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and the powerful militaries organized and equipped by America and the Soviet Union in that divided land. He tells of the United States officially entering the action on the side of the South, and exposes as never before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides and the "oceans of napalm" dropped on the North by US forces in a remarkably violent war that killed as many as four million Koreans, two thirds of whom were civilians.
In sobering detail, The Korean War chronicles a US home front agitated by Joseph McCarthy, where absolutist conformity discouraged open inquiry and citizen dissent. Cumings incisively ties our current foreign policy back to Korea: an America with hundreds of permanent military bases abroad, a large standing army, and a permanent national security state at home, the ultimate result of a judicious and limited policy of containment evolving into an ongoing and seemingly endless global crusade.
Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and essential.
©2010 Bruce Cumings (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In this brilliant narrative of America's first limited war, Toland lets both the events and the participants speak for themselves, employing scrupulous archival research and interviews as the bases for the drama and accuracy of his writing. In Mortal Combat reveals Mao's prediction of the date and place of MacArthur's Inchon landing, Russia's indifference to the war, Mao's secret leadership of the North Korean military, and the true nature of both sides' treatment and repatriation of POWs.
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Slightly disappointed
- By Patrick on 09-02-19
By: John Toland
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The Last Stand of Fox Company
- A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The Last Stand of Fox Company is a fast-paced and gripping account of heroism and self-sacrifice in the face of impossible odds. The authors have conducted dozens of firsthand interviews with the battle's survivors, and they narrate the story with the immediacy of such classic accounts of single battles as Guadalcanal Diary, Pork Chop Hill, and Black Hawk Down.
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Outstanding story, poor narration
- By Stephen on 03-05-09
By: Bob Drury, and others
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Korea
- A New History of South and North
- By: Victor Cha, Ramon Pacheco Pardo
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Korea has a long, riveting history—it is also a divided nation. South Korea is a vibrant democracy, the tenth largest economy, and is home to a world-renowned culture. North Korea is ruled by the most authoritarian regime in the world, a poor country in a rich region, and is best known for the cult of personality surrounding the ruling Kim family. But both Koreas share a unique common history. Victor Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo draw on decades of research to explore the history of modern Korea, from the late nineteenth century, Japanese occupation, and Cold War division to the present day.
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Good but Offers Little New Insight
- By Michael Allan Dawson on 10-19-24
By: Victor Cha, and others
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The 38th Parallel War
- A Tactical History of the Korean War
- By: Daniel Wrinn
- Narrated by: Daniel Wrinn
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Explore the brutal realities and tactical decisions that shaped the Korean War. From the desperate defense at the Pusan Perimeter to the audacious Incheon Landing and the harrowing winter retreat at Chosin Reservoir, this comprehensive history captures the conflict's most pivotal moments.
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The book discussed several battles that haven’t been widely written about.
- By Bob peterson on 03-30-25
By: Daniel Wrinn
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Afgantsy
- The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89
- By: Rodric Braithwaite
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan is well known: the expansionist Communists overwhelmed a poor country as a means of reaching a warm-water port on the Persian Gulf. It is a great story—but it never happened. In this brilliant, myth-busting account, Rodric Braithwaite, the former British ambassador to Moscow, challenges much of what we know about the Soviets in Afghanistan. He provides an inside look at this little-understood episode, using first-hand accounts and piercing analysis to show the war as it was fought and experienced by the Russians.
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Concise Book of Soviet-Afghan War
- By Chris on 07-18-22
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We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
- Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
- By: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating.
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The truth
- By Bobbyg on 10-08-19
By: Harold G. Moore, and others
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Vietnam
- A New History
- By: Christopher Goscha
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 23 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In Vietnam, Christopher Goscha tells the full history of Vietnam, from antiquity to the present day. Generations of emperors, rebels, priests, and colonizers left complicated legacies in this remarkable country. Periods of Chinese, French, and Japanese rule reshaped and modernized Vietnam, but so too did the colonial enterprises of the Vietnamese themselves as they extended their influence southward from the Red River Delta.
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Not bad, but not great.
- By Kp on 08-06-18
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A History of Korea (Third Edition)
- By: Kyung Moon Hwang
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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This accessible and engaging new edition continues to be one of the leading introductory textbooks on Korean history. Fully revised throughout, the author takes a thematic and chronological approach to guide listeners from early state formation and the dynastic eras to the modern experience. Episodic accounts in each chapter are discussed in context with extensive examination of how the events and themes under consideration have been viewed up to the present day.
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A Biased Story
- By Amazon Customer on 12-26-22
By: Kyung Moon Hwang
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History of Korea
- A Captivating Guide to Korean History, Including Events Such as the Mongol Invasions, the Split into North and South, and the Korean War
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Edwin Andrews
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The Korean Peninsula today is divided into two, but there was a time when this peninsula was divided into many states. Over the course of time, and besieged by expansive transient dynasties outside of this modest piece of land, many clans and tribes overran their lands. Of all those malicious and greedy potential overlords, none managed to prevail.
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Mediocre at Best
- By Anonymous User on 12-07-20
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A Vietcong Memoir
- An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath
- By: Truong Nhu Tang, David Chanoff, Doan Van Toai
- Narrated by: Trieu Tran
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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When he was a student in Paris, Truong Nhu Tang met Ho Chi Minh. Later he fought in the Vietnamese jungle and emerged as one of the major figures in the "fight for liberation" - and one of the most determined adversaries of the United States. He became the Vietcong's Minister of Justice, but at the end of the war he fled the country in disillusionment and despair. He now lives in exile in Paris, the highest level official to have defected from Vietnam to the West. This is his candid, revealing, and unforgettable autobiography.
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Excellent Political History of the Vietnam War
- By James B. Healy on 02-19-19
By: Truong Nhu Tang, and others
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The Cambridge History of Warfare
- By: Geoffrey Parker
- Narrated by: Andrew Cullum
- Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The new edition of The Cambridge History of Warfare, written and updated by a team of eight distinguished military historians, examines how war was waged by Western powers across a sweeping timeframe beginning with classical Greece and Rome, moving through the Middle Ages and the early modern period, down to the wars of the 21st century in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
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Too anglocentric
- By A. Siegel on 10-27-22
By: Geoffrey Parker
What listeners say about The Korean War
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- Frederick P. Leaf
- 09-20-23
Korea
My wife is Korean for 50 years & I served as a JAGC officer in 1972-1973. This book is an eye opener. Well done well read
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- Tommie
- 09-24-22
Very informative
This was very clearly narrated. I learned a lot about the horror that was the Korean war and the United States' roll not just in the war but in the many atrocities committed. Also, the effect that the Korean War has had on US foreign policy and how we have yet to learn that war is not the answer and that until we face our less than stellar past, we are trapped in a cycle of self perpetuating violence for which all nations pay a heavy price. Very much worth a listen.
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- Nic
- 05-08-21
Well documented
This book is quite devastating to the American ego, because it provides clear evidence that there was no black and white in the war, just grey.
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3 people found this helpful
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- John
- 11-19-20
Not the standard stuff . . .
Cumings raises the matter of atrocities committed by South Korea and the USA, too: surprising.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Bookworm
- 10-09-19
A real eye-opener
This book deals with the Korean War not as a prop in an heroic/tragic American morality play, but as a devastating historical event for Korea, the United States, and indeed the world. The U.S. conduct in this event—atrocities and complicity in atrocities, deception and self-deception, ignorance, etc—calls for a Truth and Reconciliation process, the author argues. It’s hard to disagree. He does not let any of the parties off the hook. But if N and S Korea have begun this process, so must we.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-26-22
Good not great
Probably the best English-language history of Korea through the 20th century, but still mired in liberalism and anti-communism, especially in the last chapter.
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-07-22
Great knowledge, not perfectly communicated.
This book is very balanced and full of essential knowledge for understanding this war. However I found it pretty hard to follow. Instead of following events chronologically, it often bounces around different names, places, and events in efforts to emphasize its grander narrative about history, memory, and hypocrisy. It may be easier to follow when reading in book form, but I found myself frequently rewinding and a bit lost. It’s hard to judge but it could be the narrator’s delivery as well.
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- Donny
- 04-20-24
insightful! different in a great way!
not just a straight historical recounting of the Korean War. Provides interesting perspextive of Why and How the war started. Bit of a leftist bent but nevertheless educational and a quick read.
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- Michael Raymond Hawkes
- 11-22-24
Painful to listen to the carnival ride
Terribly constructed story line with no sense of a time line and continuity. The first chapter was an out of sequence description of the Korean war. Then chapter two was all about Korean sex worker women for the Japanese in WWII. What? Yep that is just how confused I was 'til I gave up and moved on to someone who knew how to write and tell a story. No, I could not do any better writting a book. But then again, I am not claiming to be an author. And if my book came out like this, I would be issuing refunds to everyone who asked. Please can I have my money back? This book was awful.
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- Jay
- 03-08-25
Too short, totally naive and told through the lenses of today.
This book is filled with liberalism, bias, and communist claptrap! He literally says the 38th parallel which was drawn up by hasty pentagon staffers goes back to antiquity!!! Insane! Read an older history that helps explain why we fought and how China wanted to become involved. This is not a conflict that can be told in an 8hr soundbite by a modern author who just wants to beat up on American intervention. This was not the vietnam war and can’t be put in the same mold. Oh, and sorry, Barack Obama can’t have a relevant quote on the Korean war, he wasn’t even born yet!
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