The Koreans

"For anyone who wants to know Korea and the Koreans better, this book is an excellent place to start. Michael Breen's achievement is to have gotten under Korea's skin. His portrait of Koreans is at once highly personal and convincingly recognizable. Both engaged and engaging, his book comes as close as an outsider can to an insider's account of contemporary Korea, [and of its] undoubted importance in the global economy of the twenty-first century."—Aidan Foster-Carter, Korea expert, The University of Leeds

"This is a thoughtful, passionate, and enlightening look at the world's eleventh largest economy and one of its oldest cultures; required reading for the neophyte and Korea hand alike."—Stephen Glain, correspondent for the Boston Globe and author of Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants

"Michael Breen gives readers an insight into the history and character of a complex people which helps us assess how they might deal with the current complex period in their development."—Catherine Lee, Seoul correspondent, The Economist

"[Breen] writes with a snappy, readable style . . . Those wishing to learn about an increasingly important civilization will find this a thoroughly enjoyable read."—Booklist

"Breen limns with patience and perspicuity an engaging portrait of this least-known of the major Asian economic powers . . . He has a powerful command of anecdote and detail, illustrated for example in his description of community-wide rock fights in the 19th century to settle public disputes and in the horrible image of the 100,000 pickled Korean noses the 16th-century Japanese warriors took to their country to certify their body counts . . . A splendid work of explication and analysis by one who admits to being both charmed and angered by his subjects."—Kirkus Reviews