Asian Phoenix: The Stories of Modern North and South Korea

This set of 4 lectures examines the recent history and development of one of the most dangerous places on the planet: Korea. Both North and South Korea have endured decades of colonization and war to emerge since 1950 as two exemplars of a modern state, one deeply capitalist and globalized, the other dystopically communist and closed off from the world. These lectures will explore their complicated and contradictory efforts at modernization from the Korean War to the present with special emphasis on the leaders, policies and types of societies that have come into being.