Promotional Information

There can hardly be a country in modern Asia that we need to know more about. This book, written by an expert, explains the history, the business and the culture of South Korea, and where its future lies.

About the Author

Michael Breen is a writer and consultant who first went to Korea as a correspondent in 1982. He covered North and South Korea for several newspapers, including the Guardian, The Times and the Washington Times. He lives in Seoul.

Reviews

‘Breen is at his best in his anecdotes…[he] tells you all the interesting things about the Korea of today’
*Financial Times*

As good a guide to a fascinating country in transformation as you will get.
*Management Today*

A broad and deep exposition of South Korean history, politics, economy and society that will have even the oldest Korea hands going "I never knew that".'
*DANIEL TUDOR, author of Korea: The Impossible Country*

Not only is The New Koreans magnificent in its sweep and depth; as a bonus, it's...fun to read
*BRADLEY K. MARTIN, author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader*

[An] informative, deep introduction to this fascinating (and not well-known) country and, in addition, an engaging read.
*ANDREI LANKOV, author of The Dawn of Modern Korea*

Affectionate, critical, full of anecdotes, this is a constantly astonishing and highly readable exploration of Korea's identity.
*HAMISH McDONALD, former Asia-Pacific Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald*

In an age where everyone is sharply critical of everyone else, The New Koreans is a delightful change of pace, pungent observations of Koreans as they see themselves and as outsiders see them, part history, part story telling, all pieces of a beautiful, frustrating, endearing puzzle fit together in a superb way as only a keen, veteran observer as Michael Breen can do.
*JAMES CHURCH, author of A Corpse in the Koryo*

Michael Breen’s excellent “The New Koreans,” an economic, political and social history, shows how South Korea went “from basket case to emerging market” in a period of 40 years. In the process of telling that story, Mr Breen, a British-born journalist who lives in Seoul, explodes many of the excuses frequently used by economists and historians to rationalize the country’s underperformance.
*Wall Street Journal*