B.R. Myers was born in New Jersey and raised in Bermuda, South Africa and Germany. He has a Ph.D. in North Korean Studies from the University of Tubingen in Germany. His books include "Han Sorya and North Korean Literature" (Cornell East Asia Series, 1994) and "A Reader's Manifesto" (Melville House, 2002). At present he directs the international studies department at Dongseo University in South Korea. In addition to writing literary criticism for the American magazine "The Atlantic," of which he is a contributing editor, Myers regularly contributes articles on North Korea to the "New York Times," "Wall Street Journal" and academic publications.
"Electrifying... finely argued and brilliantly written."
--Christopher Hitchens, Slate
"Provocative... A fascinating analysis." --Dwight Garner, "The New
York Times"
"[A] scary... close reading of domestic propaganda [that] goes a
long way toward explaining the erratic behavior and seemingly
bizarre thought processes of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il."" --The Wall
Street Journal
""Myers' book is worth buying and reading."""--"The Quarterly
Review
"
"The definitive book on the subject." "--The Atlantic"
"There are few books that can give the world a peek into the Hermit
Kingdom."The Cleanest Race "provides a reason to care about how
those in North Korea see themselves and the West. It is possibly
the best addition to that small library of books on North Korean
ideology."
--Andrei Lankov, "Far Eastern Economic Review
""""Myers renders great service to the global foreign policy
establishment with his lucid and well documented profile of the
North Korean polity. If only it were made mandatory reading for all
the stakeholder leaders, particularly the American establishment,
who feel compelled to deal politically with North Korea. Maybe
then, Myers' wisdom might lead them to adopt the only possibly
policy toward North Korea that will work: that of 'benign
neglect.'" "
"--Mike Gravel, US Senate 1969-1981
"In his new survey of North Korean propaganda, "The Cleanest Race,"
B.R. Myers insists that the ongoing support of the North Korean
public for the regime doesn't reflect any great faith in communism.
Instead, he argues, it is rooted in a kind of paranoid racial
nationalism adapted from the Japanese fascism that flourished
before World War II.... Myers feels that the racialism at the heart
of the regime's ideology will sustain it even as it fails to
provide the prosperity it promises."
--Laura Miller, Salon.com
"The text offers a clear picture of the peculiar worldview of this
profoundly inward-facing country, it
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