The Gwangju Uprising: The Pivotal Democratic Movement That Changed the History of Modern Korea

Description

The Gwangju Uprising: The Pivotal Democratic Movement That Changed the History of Modern Korea

Author: Choi Jungwoon; translated by Yu Young-nan
Order No. 1044
ISBN-13: 9781931907361
ISBN-10: 1931907366
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Homa & Sekey Books
Pub Year: 2006
Pages: xx, 326
Language: English
Size: 6 x 9
Price: $34.95
20% off: $27.96

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. Learn More…