Review

General Books

Peter Lowe's The Korean War, part of Jeremy Black's edited series, Twentieth Century Wars, is a solid rendition of the major events of the Korean War and a basic analysis of those events. The author sets out to trace the origins, nature, and effects of the war, and I think he does this quite well by looking at the political and diplomatic events of the conflict from a multinational perspective. In fact, Lowe's book is probably one of the first monographs, if not the first, to be designed for non-majors since research on the war began in the former Soviet and PRC archives. Lowe makes it clear that a good scholarly coverage of the war's causes, turning points, and conclusion can no longer be done from a strictly United States perspective. Accordingly, he delves as deeply as he can in this short work into not only American, Soviet, and Chinese perspectives, but also British, Indian, South Korean, and North Korean views of the war. Having written monographs on the British role in the war, he is particularly well informed about the United Kingdom and India, but the coverage of the other powers does not seem to suffer. Other strengths include his continuous connections of the international relations of the war to the domestic politics of each of the major players. He is particularly effective on communicating McCarthyite hysteria in the United States and its significant impact on the conduct of American foreign policy. Similarly, he is quite effective at giving important details about Stalin's, Mao's and Syngman Rhee's domestic agendas, and his use of research done by Korean specialists such as Bruce Cumings and Kathryn Weathersby will give students a glimpse, at least, into Kim Il Sung's North Korea. Lowe does not leave the story in 1953, but takes us to the present day, detailing how and why each of the Korean states has developed in different directions and even discussing future possibilities for reunification.	1
There are, however, a few problems with the book. Lowe has essentially written a political and diplomatic history, largely ignoring the military dimensions of the war. Snippets about the actual fighting are interwoven in the text, and there is a short appendix analyzing the performance of each of the major nations' fighting forces. The book would have benefited, however, by more lengthy sections in the text analyzing the performance of the various armed forces and then relating those performances to the politics and diplomacy that are dealt with so well throughout the book. Another problem is a lack of explanation at certain points which students, especially non-majors, would need if using the book. For instance, Lowe mentions Dean Acheson's 1950 defensive perimeter speech to the National Press Club twice in the text, but he does not explain it. Certainly, the new research may have disproven that it had any impact on the North Koreans or Soviets, but at the time it was vitally important to United States perceptions about actions taken by the Communist nations. Further explanation is definitely needed for novice students. My final quibble is more likely with the editor of the series and/or the publishing company than with the author. Lowe provides a good bibliography for further reading. However, those bibliographical entries should have been related back to the text in the form of endnotes or footnotes. In all likelihood, the editor and/or the publisher did not do so for reasons of space limitations. However, editors and publishers have to begin realizing that students must be exposed to issues of source documentation. If survey texts do not include these vital components, entry-level students, who will probably never take another history course in their lives, will never be made aware of this dimension of the historian's craft.	2
In spite of my criticisms, I think Peter Lowe has done a commendable job with a complex subject, the interpretations of which have been highly fluid in the last decade and continue to be so. If Lowe updates this volume, it will be interesting to see how he deals with the 1999-2000 charges of wartime atrocities by American military personnel against South Korean civilians. That too will teach novice students quite a bit about history, memory, and changing interpretations. Lowe's book, though not stated anywhere in particular, seems quite suited to introducing upper division high school and lower division college students to the major events of the Korean War. In addition, the book nicely blends in changes to the historiography of the war that have come to light since the end of the Cold War and the partial opening of Chinese (PRC) and former Soviet archives. The book is short, easy to read, and affordable in its paperback version. While it might be a bit of a difficult read for upper division high school students, students who have had a Modern American or Modern World history course should be able to digest the book. It is probably best suited to lower division college students, though Lowe never makes quite clear what is his exact audience.	3
Henry Ford Community College   Hal M. Friedman

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