A timely perspective on the history of the Korean peninsula



"Perceptive and compelling – often heart-rending, sometimes downright terrifying… The lessons are all too pertinent in today’s toxic political climate, with Korea once again a centrepiece and victim." Noam Chomsky
"This is a very important book, an eye-opening one, and a wise one. … beautifully written…the phrase 'as gripping as a thriller,' really applies... No-one with an interest in recent history and current affairs should fail to read it." AC Grayling

Korea: Where the American Century Began is a timely new account of the role of the US in the Korean War and its responsibility for the current impasse on the Korean peninsula. It provides the history and the context that explains US involvement; why there has been no peace treaty, no unification, and why we now live with the threat of nuclear war in Northeast Asia. Few people understand the real failures of the Korean War or that the United States was the first to abrogate the armistice. As President Trump threatens to ’totally destroy' North Korea, this book tells the tale that fires Pyongyang’s indignation – from the disastrous decision to invade North Korea; to the longest retreat in American military history; to the napalm, the nuclear threats, the biological warfare and the ghastly treatment of POWs in camps run by the US Army. Korea examines Washington’s role from 1945 to the present in the creation and worsening of relations –how hubris, overreach and militarism have dominated policy, and how, in pursuit of regional hegemony in Northeast Asia, the United States has made a bad situation worse.