A comprehensive history of South Korean capitalism by veteran South Korean labor activist and economist Park Seung-ho. Beginning with the anti-feudal peasant revolts of the late nineteenth century and concluding with the neoliberal economic reforms of the 1990s and the social polarization of so-called “Hell Joseon” in the 2010s, this book sketches a history of the past 100 years of South Korea capitalism as a dialectical unfolding of antagonisms between South Korea’s poor and working classes and the capitalist class.
Whereas most popular histories of the South Korean economy place innovation, strategic state planning, and national willpower at the center of the narrative of the “Miracle on the Han River,” Park’s book sharply criticises this notion of capitalism as a shared project of mutual prosperity for Korean people, instead placing power and class struggle at the center of the story. Most importantly, Park’s work is unique for looking beyond the borders of South Korea to explain how US and Japanese imperialism, transnational capital, and global workers’ movements have shaped the unfolding of class struggle and social relations in South Korea.
