Peter B Kwon

SUNY: University at Albany, East Asian Studies, Faculty Member

Fulbright Scholars, Fulbright Korea, Fulbright US Scholar

Korea National Defense University, Research Institute for National Security Affairs (RINSA), Visiting Professor

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Author of Cornerstone of the Nation: The Defense Industry and the Building of Modern Korea under Park Chung Hee (Harvard University Asia Center, 2024)
Harvard East Asian Monographs | March 2024

Paperback: www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674297135
Hardcover: www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674293823
Amazon: a.co/d/3naY9hD
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Peter Banseok Kwon is Associate Professor of Korean Studies at the State University of New York in Albany (University at Albany). Previously, he was 2017-2018 Soon Young Kim Postdoctoral Fellow in Korean Studies at the Korea Institute, Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages (focus: Modern and Contemporary Korean History) from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and his AM in Regional Studies-East Asia at Harvard.
Supervisors: Carter J. Eckert, Andrew Gordon, Sun Joo Kim, and Hyung-A Kim

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Cornerstone of the Nation: The Defense Industry and the Building of Modern Korea under Park Chung Hee (Harvard University Asia Center, 2024)

Harvard University Press / Harvard University Asia Center, 2024

Cornerstone of the Nation is the first historical account of the complex alliance of military and... more Cornerstone of the Nation is the first historical account of the complex alliance of military and civilian forces that catapulted South Korea’s conjoined militarization and industrialization under Park Chung Hee (1961–1979). Peter Banseok Kwon reveals how Park’s secret program to build an independent defense industry spurred a total mobilization of business, science, labor, and citizenry, all of which converged in military–civilian forces that propelled an unprecedented model of modernization in Korea. Drawing on largely untapped declassified materials from Korea and personal interviews with contemporaneous participants in the nascent defense industry, as well as declassified U.S. documents and other external sources, Kwon weaves together oral histories and documentary evidence in an empirically rich narrative that details how militarization shaped the nation’s rapid economic, technological, political, and social transformation.

Cornerstone of the Nation makes the case that South Korea’s arms development under Park may be the most durable and yet least acknowledged factor behind the country’s rise to economic prominence in the late twentieth century. Through an analysis that simultaneously engages some of the most contested issues in Korean historiography, development literature, contemporary politics, and military affairs, Cornerstone of the Nation traces Korea’s distinct pathway to becoming a global economic force.

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Harvard University Press (Publisher):
Paperback: www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674297135
Hardcover: www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674293823

Amazon: a.co/d/3naY9hD

Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cornerstone-of-the-nation-peter-banseok-kwon/1143054735?ean=9780674293823

Bookshop.org: bookshop.org/search?keywords=9780674293823

Aladdin (in Korea): https://www.aladin.co.kr/m/mproduct.aspx?start=short&itemid=311669372

Yes24: https://m.yes24.com/Goods/Detail/122942310

Media Inquiries and Review Copies:
For media inquiries or library copy requests, please contact the publicity department at Harvard University Press at [email protected].

Link for Librarians and Booksellers: www.hup.harvard.edu/resources/booksellers/

Link for Journalists/Book Review Editors: www.hup.harvard.edu/resources/journalists/

Interested journals are invited to request a review copy from HUP’s publicity department or contact Kristen Wanner, Director of the Harvard University Asia Center Publications Program, at [email protected].

Peter B Kwon

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