Rationalizing Korea: The Rise of the Modern State, 1894-1945

Title: Rationalizing Korea: The Rise of the Modern State, 1894-1945 

Author: Kyung Moon Hwang

Publication Year: 2016

Publication type: Book

Publisher: University of California Press

Find this publication at: Rationalizing Korea by Kyung Moon Hwang | Waterstones

Abstract

This is the first book to explore the institutional, ideological, and conceptual development of the modern state on the Korea peninsula, Rationalizing Korea analyzes the state's relationship to five social sectors, each through a distinctive interpretive theme: economy (developmentalism), religion (secularization), education (public schooling), population (registration), and public health (disease control). Kyung Moon Hwang argues that while this formative process resulted in a more commanding and systematic state, it was also highly fragmented, socially embedded, and driven by competing, often conflicting rationalizations, including those of Confucian statecraft and legitimation. Such outcomes reflected the acute experience of imperialism, nationalism, colonialism, and other sweeping forces of the era.

About the author

Kyung Moon Hwang is Korea Foundation Professor at the Australian National University, Canberra. He is the author of A History of Korea (Third Edition, 2021), Past Forward: Essays in Korean History (2019), Rationalizing Korea: The Rise of the Modern State (2015), and Beyond Birth: Social Status in the Emergence of Modern Korea (2004).