* It's a pleasure to read and pleasure to appreciate !
The text runs smoothly since it has written as a letter, and the illustrations and Photos are always on the page where the reader needs them to understand Korean History more easily witnessing the era with their own eyes.
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| Letters from Korean History, Korean Version |
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| Letters from Korean History, English Version |
Letters from Korean History was originally published in Korea, 2002, revised 2009, and has been distributed more than 3.5 million copies.
The Korean version of Letters from Korean history is well kwon as its unique writing style. The entire book's written as a long letter from a mother, who wants to explain Korean history in an easy way, and she wrote the book to her own daughter trying to make her history lesson more interesting and understandable with mother's warm words. The english version of Letters from Korean History took a form of a letter like the original version and also rewritten for wider range of readers, from teenager to young adult.
Making any Korean book accessible to readers of English through translation
is a privilege. The same goes for Letters from Korean History. In a series of letters
addressed to a young reader overseas, the author adopts a conversational style
of writing that conveys the ups and downs, ins and outs of Korean history with
ease.
- Ben Jackson, from Translator's forword to Letters from Korean history
1. Unlike most introductions to Korean history, Letters from Korean History takes a theme-based approach:
each theme functions as a window onto a particular period. The use of several different windows offering various perspectives onto the same period is meant to help the reader form her or his own more complete picture of that part of history.
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Vo.1: From prehistory to United Silla and Balhae
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2. Letters from Korean History places equal emphasis on aspects such as culture,
everyday life, society and social segments with habitually low historical profiles,
such as women and children:
This is an important difference to conventional introductory histories, which naturally tend towards narratives centered on ruling classes by prioritizing political history.
This is an important difference to conventional introductory histories, which naturally tend towards narratives centered on ruling classes by prioritizing political history.
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Vo.2: From the Later three Kingdoms to Goryeo
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3. Also attempted to portray Korean history not as that of a single nation in
isolation but as part of world history as a whole, and to adopt a perspective that
places humans as just one species in the universe and nature:
This is why the
first letter begins not with prehistory on the Korean Peninsula but with the birth
of the human race on Earth. The connection with world history is maintained
throughout the five volumes, in which Korea’s interactions, relationships and points of comparison with the rest of the world are constantly explored.
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Vol.3: Joseon - From founding to later years
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4. Unlike most general histories, which make passing references to characters and dates,
it depicts Korea’s past through a series of engaging stories:
it depicts Korea’s past through a series of engaging stories:
It is my hope that these will help readers feel like direct witnesses to historical scenes as they unfold. All content is based on historical materials, either in their original form or adapted without distortion. Sources include key texts such as Samguk sagi (“History of the Three Kingdoms”), Samguk yusa (“Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms”), Goryeosa (“History of Goryeo”) and Joseon wangjo sillok (“Royal Annals of the Joseon Dynasty”), as well as a variety of literary anthologies, letters, journals and epigraphs.
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| Vol.4: From late Joseon to the Daehan Empire |
5. Each Letter contains a historical episode in its own right, and can be chosen and read according to the reader’s particular area of interest:
I hope that readers will not feel obliged to start at the beginning of Volume I and plow all the way through. The text is complemented by plenty of photos and illustrations, giving a more vivid sense of history - reading the captions that accompany these should enhance the sense of historical exploration.
I hope that readers will not feel obliged to start at the beginning of Volume I and plow all the way through. The text is complemented by plenty of photos and illustrations, giving a more vivid sense of history - reading the captions that accompany these should enhance the sense of historical exploration.
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| Vol.5: From the Daehan Empire to North-South rapprochement |
I very much hope that this book will become a useful source of guidance for young readers, wherever they may be.
- Eunbong Park, from Author's Preface to Letters from Korean History
* Order in USA:
Now on SALE at ALADIN US :
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Available on Amazon.com from August, 2016
* Order in Korea:
Aladin Korea
Kyobo
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