| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Gi-Wook Shin and Kyung Moon Hwang, editors. Contentious Kwangju: The May 18 Uprising in Korea's Past and Present. (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives.) Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2003. Pp. xxxi, 159. Cloth $65.00, paper $22.95.
This book offers what an edited volume should: a multiplicity of perspectives on a common topic with sufficient introduction and cross-references.	1
The 1980 Kwangju Uprising looms large on the map of contemporary South Korean history. It is no exaggeration to say that it is nearly universally appreciated as a critical landmark in South Korea's political and social struggle over the 1980s and 1990s, and it is precisely this uniform appreciation of its historical salience that warrants critical analysis. Although the contributors by no means challenge Kwangju's rightful historical prominence, they do interrogate orthodox understandings of the event. The book's fitting subtitle serves as a handy reference to what it is that makes "Kwangju" (i.e. the uprising) contentious: first, its character as a social movement or struggle; and second, its life as a post-1980 historical legacy.	2
This is in large part a well-integrated volume because of a first-rate introduction by coeditor and sociologist Gi-Wook Shin and a provocative afterword by coeditor and historian Kyung Moon Hwang. Shin's contribution is remarkably efficient: readers will find there exactly the pithy historical background needed in order to make sense of the work's points of contention. The uprising is also succinctly reviewed as a process, a ten-day struggle in Kwangju and its vicinity from May 18 to May 27 aptly characterized by contributor Keun-sik Jung as "comprehensive" (p. 44).	. . .

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