Troubled Tiger: Businessmen, Bureaucrats and Generals in South Korea

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant look inside the 'Korean miracle'
Review: An excellent overview of South Korea's political economy over its brief history. With all the talk of Asian and Korean miracles, it's good to see a book that actually takes a closer look and exposes some of the darker side. Korea has done a phenomenonal job, but it should be remembered that a lot of it was due to almost inhumane working hours, and brutal repression of labour. For that reason, I think pundits are a bit off when they talk about applying the Korean development model to other developing countries.
Like all journalists, Clifford is prone to sweeping generalisations, but it's a small flaw. He's also clearly not an economist, and overstretches a little with his economic analysis.

Rating:
Summary: Well-focused but don't look for much on Korean life here
Review: Clifford's book is a well-written and well-organized chronicle of the rise and fall (as of the Kim Young Sam administration) of the Korean economy. The book reads as an economic history, moving rapidly from event to event and personality to personality in the chain of events connecting postwar reconstruction to the beginnings of the 1997 financial crisis. It is definitely an outsider's perspective, however, with little feel for the impact of these events on the average Korean citizen or even the foreign resident in Korea. Caught up in the retelling of the Park Chung Hee regime, the casual reader can easily overlook the fact that the "Businessmen, Bureaucrats and Generals" rode to power on the backs of millions of average, hardworking citizens, and that the intrigues, scandals, frauds and corruption had and continue to have direct effects on the lives of unnamed thousands, many of whom have lost their jobs, homes, and even lives because of the corruption rampant in the ruling class. A sequel, or revision, that chronicles the administration of Kim Dae Jung (1997-2001) would be very welcome from this author because of his attention to detail and forceful writing style, but if you're looking for insight into everyday life in Korea, or the more mundane facets of Korean culture, this is not the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: a highly readable account of South Korea's economy
Review: Mark Clifford is a journalist and "Troubled Tiger" is a highly readable account of South Korea's economy through the 1980s. It is not a particularly analytical nor is it deep in an academic sense, but some of the anecdotal material is simply stunning. The revised edition has an epilogue that in tries to bring the story "up-to-date" but it has a tacked on feel.