| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

William Stueck. Rethinking the Korean War: A New Diplomatic and Strategic History. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 285. $29.95.
The old adage about practice making perfect applies to this, William Stueck's third book related to the Korean War. He began his career with a treatment of U.S. East Asian policy on the eve of that conflict, followed with an exploration of the war's international context, and now (prompted by colleagues) has returned with a synthetic "rethinking." Every page reflects his well-honed expertise: three decades working with the documentary record and reflecting on major controversies generated by an active community of scholars.	1
The book proceeds methodically, from origins through the course of the war to aftermath and thence to significance. Each chapter tackles a major interpretive question (e.g. how to explain the war's origins or the difficulty in ending it). Each opens with a crisp summary of the relevant historical developments and then breaks the question at hand into manageable parts, the better to move systematically toward a sensible answer. The style is clear, deliberate, and engagingly interrogatory. (Only the final chapter on democratic decision making lacks the crispness and command that generally characterizes this work.) A sprinkling of maps and photographs is a welcome addition. The photographs in particular hint at issues slighted in this essentially political history, not least images of orphans that speak of staggering death and social disruption on the peninsula. Short and direct enough for the captive classroom audience or the fabled general reader, the book stands alongside the other attempts over the last decade to boil down the history of the war to its essentials, notably Burton I. Kaufman's revised 1997 treatment and Steven Hugh Lee's history with documents from 2001.	. . .

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