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The Korean War : a history

by Cumings, Bruce, 1943-

Format: Print Book 2010
Availability: Available at 13 Libraries 13 of 14 copies

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Andrew Carnegie Free Library Nonfiction 951.9042 CUMING
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Call Number  951.9042 CUMING
 
 
Braddock Carnegie Library Non Fiction 951.7 CUM
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Collection  Non Fiction
 
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CLP - Allegheny Non-Fiction Collection DS918.C75 2010
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CLP - Hill District Non-Fiction Collection DS918.C75 2010
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CLP - Squirrel Hill Non-Fiction Collection DS918.C75 2010
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Carnegie Library of McKeesport Nonfiction 951.9042 C911
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Dormont Public Library Non-Fiction 951.9042 C91
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Jefferson Hills Public Library Non-Fiction 951.704 CUM
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Monroeville Public Library Non-fiction 951.904 CUMINGS
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Mt. Lebanon Public Library Non-Fiction 951.9042 C85
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Northern Tier Regional Library Nonfiction 951.9042 CUMIN
Location  Northern Tier Regional Library
 
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Northland Public Library Nonfiction 951.9042 C91 2010
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Upper St. Clair Township Library Storage 951.942 CUM
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CLP - East Liberty Non-Fiction Collection CHECKED OUT
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Summary
The Korean War, More than any other war in modern times, is surrounded by residues and slippages of memory. The Great War's place is indelible, its annihilating violence a permanent reminder of war's carnage. World War II was the good war, an outright victory to be celebrated. Vietnam tore the United States apart. With Korea there is less a presence than an absence; thus the default reflexive American name: "the forgotten war." For years I rejected the "forgotten war" rubric; the unknown war seemed much better. But for Americans Korea is both: a forgotten war and a never-known war. For Americans Korea is just one among several wars best forgotten, just another transient episode among a myriad of interventions in Third World countries that do not bear close examination, but have unsettling ways of coming back to haunt us. Book jacket.
Contents
The course of the war
The party of memory
The party of forgetting
Culture of repression
38 degrees of separation : a forgotten occupation
"The most disproportionate result" : the air war
The flooding of memory
A "forgotten war" that remade the United States and the Cold War
Requiem : history in the temper of reconciliation.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "An academic specialist on Korean history, Cumings believes Americans have amnesia about the Korean War of 1950-53. Or is it the Korean War of 1931 to the present? Cumings goes back that far for an origin to hostilities, seating them in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and characterizing what happened in June 1950 as an intensification of a Korean civil war, though one definitely escalated by North Korea. These contexts, including the American occupation of South Korea from 1945-48, are more important in Cumings' treatment than the specifically military history of the war, which is dominant in popular American memory of the war. The picture Cumings presents does not flatter American policies, which take hits for supporting a ruthless South Korean government and for destroying North Korean cities. Chronicling atrocities perpetrated by the South, Cummings does not exonerate those committed by the North; the comparison serves his proposition that America intervened in a civil war, to its detriment. Cumings' historical expertise will be highly informative background material for those watching the current explosive potential of the North Korean situation.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "For many, the Korean War is remembered more for Hawkeye and Klinger than General MacArthur and Syngman Rhee. But for Cumings (Korea's Place in the Sun), professor at the University of Chicago, the critical issue is not one of memory, but of understanding. In this devastating work he shows how little the U.S. knew about who it was fighting, why it was fighting, and even how it was fighting. Though the North Koreans had a reputation for viciousness, according to Cumings, U.S. soldiers actually engaged in more civilian massacres (including dropping over half a million tons of bombs and thousands of tons of napalm, more than was dropped on the entire Pacific theatre in World War II, almost indiscriminately). Cumings deftly reveals how Korea was a clear precursor to Vietnam: a divided country, fighting a long anti-colonial war with a committed and underestimated enemy; enter the U.S., efforts go poorly, disillusionment spreads among soldiers, and lies are told at top levels in an attempt to ignore or obfuscate a relentless stream of bad news. For those who like their truth unvarnished, Cumings's history will be a fresh, welcome take on events that seemed to have long been settled. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."

Additional Information
Series Modern Library chronicles.
Subjects Korean War, 1950-1953.
Korean War, 1950-1953 -- United States.
Korean War, 1950-1953 -- Social aspects -- United States.
Publisher New York :Modern Library,2010
Edition Modern Library ed.
Language English
Description xix, 288 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm.
Bibliography Notes Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9780679643579 :
0679643575 :
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