本书探究了发生在韩国一个西南城市光州的民主运动的起因和背景。抗争发生在1980年, 当时一支伞兵粗暴地驱散正在游行抗议 全斗焕将军接任韩国总统的人群。在这个事件中191平民丧生，852人受伤。后来人们称之为光州抗争。

本书作者分析了有关事件的各种论调，生动地刻画出起义者反抗伞兵的街头斗争。
他深入地分析了参加者的思想情况和动机，并揭示了起义中的各种暴行。作者还了解了参加者经历的抗争的不同阶段，从事件之初的和平聚集，到随之而来的内部冲突，以及他们从事件中吸取的教训。作者辩称这次抗争中的联合行动推动了韩国现代历史的发展。

The book explores the implications of the democratic movement that took place in Gwangju, a southwestern city of Korea, in May 1980 when military paratroopers brutally crushed a group of protesters who demonstrated against General Chun Doo-hwan, who was about to become the country’s president. Because of the event now known as the Gwangju Uprising, 191 people perished and 852 were wounded.

In The Gwangju Uprising, Choi Jungwoon analyzes various discourses and motives of the uprising and vividly paints the demonstrators’ street battles against paratroopers. He gives an in-depth scrutiny of the participants’ mentalities and incentives, and the type of brutality involved. He also examines the stages the participants went through during the uprising, from the peace and togetherness they had at first, to the internal conflict that soon followed, to the lessons they learned in the uprising’s aftermath. Choi argues that the united front experienced by the participants during the uprising was a driving force that changed modern Korean history.