| The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters |  | Author: B.R. Myers
Publisher: Melville House
Category: Book
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 100,611
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 208
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Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 7.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1933633913
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.375095193
EAN: 9781933633916
ASIN: 1933633913
Publication Date: January 26, 2010
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Product Description
Understanding North Korea through its propaganda
What do the North Koreans really believe? How do they see themselves and the world around them?
Here B.R. Myers, a North Korea analyst and a contributing editor of The Atlantic, presents the first full-length study of the North Korean worldview. Drawing on extensive research into the regime’s domestic propaganda, including films, romance novels and other artifacts of the personality cult, Myers analyzes each of the country’s official myths in turn—from the notion of Koreans’ unique moral purity, to the myth of an America quaking in terror of “the Iron General.” In a concise but groundbreaking historical section, Myers also traces the origins of this official culture back to the Japanese fascist thought in which North Korea’s first ideologues were schooled.
What emerges is a regime completely unlike the West’s perception of it. This is neither a bastion of Stalinism nor a Confucian patriarchy, but a paranoid nationalist, “military-first” state on the far right of the ideological spectrum.
Since popular support for the North Korean regime now derives almost exclusively from pride in North Korean military might, Pyongyang can neither be cajoled nor bullied into giving up its nuclear program. The implications for US foreign policy—which has hitherto treated North Korea as the last outpost of the Cold War—are as obvious as they are troubling. With North Korea now calling for a “blood reckoning” with the “Yankee jackals,” Myers’s unprecedented analysis could not be more timely.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 A Kingdom of Slaves, A Refuge of Dragons February 2, 2010
William Alexander (Spartanburg, SC)
83 out of 85 found this review helpful
I knew that B. R. Myers was a contributing editor, I believe, for "The Atlantic," my favorite periodical. I had no idea that he was also a student of the Korean Peninsula, especially the "Hermit Kingdom" north of the 38th parallel. Christopher Hitchens reviewed this book for "Slate" today, and after catching it this morning, I drove to my local Barnes & Noble in the vague hope they might have a copy. I was shocked that they had a copy in stock. And I was not able to put this fascinating book down.
Myers objective is, by explaining North Korea in the roots of its modern past, to try to make some form recommendations as to how the world community can deal with this strange and blinkered land. His ultimate conclusion is, unfortunately, rather gloomy, arguing essentially that containment and "benevolent neglect" are the only methods to deploy against a regime that, by its own self-definition, is as fixed and unchangeable as a steel and cement mold. All this short of actual military confrontation no one exterior to North Korea wants.
But, this is not the best part of the book. Myers advances and, I think, proves that North Korea is purely a product of its all-pervasive propaganda which literally soaks every aspect of daily life, twenty-four seven, learned in part from the brutal occupation tactics of the Japanese between 1905-1945. And this propaganda supports the two pillars of this Orwellian moonscape, the military and the Kim clan, arguably the most successful crime family since the fictional Corleones. North Korea is no longer properly understood as a "communist" society. Indeed, the very word was removed from the latest Constitution in favor of the long-evolving bogus governmental policy of "Juche," the military elites celebrated as a class in support of a paranoid "imperial family" who have gone to absurd lengths to soldify their dread power over a population kept in absolute, deliberate ignorance of the world outside; even going to far as to use low-level malnutrition as a method of social control. Myers uses mutitudinous examples of past and contemporary North Korean governmental propaganda to illustrate the depths to which this control is exercised. And the consistent keys struck over and over are: (a) absolute fear of the "outside," especially South Korea, Japan, the United States, and even China to a limited extent; (b) the fostering of a divine cult around the ruling family (even suggesting the future "quasi-resurrection" of the dynastic founder); (c) glorification of the military establishment, including the nuclear programme as nationalist expression; and (d) institutionalized racism that also extendes into eugenic practices to keep the Korean race "pure." And all this is overlaid with a perverse form of warped Confucianism where deference to authority is posited as the highest of social aspirations. Put in radically simpler terms, North Korea is best understood less as nation-state than religious cult where the "Dark Other" is the rest of the earth itself.
I also note that Myers descriptive prose is very powerful, but made more so by ample visual examples in the book which are not "filler" but artfully chosen to illustrate main points. Excellent visual and written editing all the way around.
I admit that using propaganda alone as a basis for historical conclusions is usually a spotty exercise. But in a nation where that propaganda is the essence of the state and the people its creations from cradle to grave, I think the basis far more firm than, say, it would be in a discussion of modern China, for example, or Soviet-era Roumania. On this sure footing, and backed by what is obviously years of work and scholarship, Myers makes a complelling case that any dealings with North Korea must be informed by an understanding of how it sees itself, as horrible that vision may be.
Recommended without reservation, especially to people interested in political science, cultural history, and East Asian Studies.
The Best Book Ever Written on North Korea February 28, 2010
Asia Reader (Seoul)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
This is the rarest of books: a genuinely original analysis that demolishes most of what we thought we knew about something, in this case North Korea. For decades, virtually all of us have blithely assumed that North Korea's ideology was Juche, Stalinism, Confucianism, or some combination thereof. Myers makes a meticulously researched, closely reasoned argument that it is none of these things. On the contrary, the DPRK is an ethno-centric nationalist state led by a beloved, androgynous Parent Leader. In Pyongyang's world view, Koreans are a pure, childlike race, virtually incapable of sin, or of surviving in a world of vicious foreigners. Thankfully, the Great Leader -- the mother-like Kim Il Sung -- is there to protect them, followed by the even more maternal Kim Jong Il. These innocent people are constantly threatened, of course, by those vicious, cowardly, hook-nosed Americans, who must be resisted at all costs. This analysis is of great value in itself, but it also has important policy implications, not the least of which is that since the Americans are the mortal enemies of the Korean people, genuine compromise with them on something like the DPRK's nuclear programs is unthinkable.
Until recently, virtually the only books available in English on North Korea (or even South Korea) were the tendentious, self-indulgent polemics written by Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago. Cumings was largely discredited long ago, and Myers finishes the job. It is hard to imagine he will ever be taken seriously again. Rather, for anyone involved in international relations or Asian affairs, "The Cleanest Race" is quite simply the best book ever written on North Korea, and, for as long as that wretched place endures, this book will be the definitive study of the regime and the starting point for all analysis of the DPRK.
I have a couple complaints: many of the North Korean propaganda pictures Myers uses to support his argument are so small one can barely make them out, and, incredibly for such an otherwise serious piece of analysis, this book contains no index. (Note to Myers: Next time, consider another publisher.) Perhaps these problems will be addressed in the next edition. But these are mere quibbles. All that matters is this: if your work involves East Asia or international relations, stop reading and order this book. Do it now. And resume reading the minute "The Cleanest Race" arrives.
A different analysis of North Korea April 16, 2010
Michael A. Duvernois (Minneapolis, MN United States)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
There's probably more analysis of the sexual politics and iconography of North Korea than most folks need, but even so, this is an important contribution to understanding the weirdness above the 38th parallel. I would recommend a variety of books to read to try to understand North Korea, but this is an especially important book for really taking in the mythologies of North Korea and understanding them. We often have a tendency (perhaps a projection even) to discount belief in propaganda. Mostly notably, few discussion of Bin Laden take seriously his belief in his own statements. This discounting of propaganda, in the North Korean context, has lead to dramatic failures of serious negotiations. Agreements and treaties have been made without understanding that the propaganda ("we're using the other parties to the treaty") in fact reflect what the North Korean leadership truly believes.
The author hopes that by understanding the mythology, the iconography, and the propaganda of North Korea we can understand the very real beliefs of the North Korean leadership. As has been pointed out many times, Mein Kampf was ignored as propaganda, but contained a very real set of beliefs and planned actions which guided Hitler through the war and the Holocaust. If only people would read the beliefs as they are believed...
A different perspective on North Korea March 14, 2010
Rob Bittick (Houston area, Texas USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
B R Myers presents the reader with a very different view of North Korea than that normally portrayed in the media. The author argues that North Korea promotes a race based world view comparable to that of Imperial Japan, rather than Marxist-Leninist ideology typical of other communist states. Additionally, North Korea promotes a maternal view of the state rather than a paternal view, where the people are believed to be a virtuous child race. Consequently, this world view holds that the Korean people need a strong leader (i.e. Kim Il Sung) to guide them. This book contains many North Korean propaganda posters and art, along with excerpts from novels, poems, songs, etc. to illustrate the author's main points. Very informative.
A useful perspective April 16, 2010
Al Bacone (SoCal, USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Other reviews have adequately summarized the content of the book, so I'll avoid detailed criticism here. I can not be certain how close Myers' views are to reality, but I can say that this is the first model of North Korean culture I've read that makes cohesive sense of the regime's behavior and the startling lack of Soviet-style jadedness in the people that support it. As I said, we can't be sure if Myers is right here or not, but he makes a compelling case and offers a valuable perspective.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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