New Book Alert: The Military Examination in Late Choson Dynasty

[samsuh]

Here's a new book that I just purchased. Eugene Y. Park, Between Dreams and Reality: The Military Examination in Late Choson Dynasty, 1600-1894, Harvard University Asia Center, 2007, ISBN 978-0-674-02502-8.

Here's an excerpt from the dust cover:

"From the mid-seventeenth to the mid-ninteenth century, millions of Korean men from all walks of life trained in the arts of war to prepare not for actual combat but to sit for the state military examination (mukwa). Despite this widespread interest, only for s small minority did passing the test lead to appointment as a military official. Why, then, did so many men aspire to the mukwa?"

This is not for the casual reader interested in pictures or anecdotes of warriors from the Choson Dynasty but a serious academic work investigating the role of military in the Choson polity.

[Daniel Sullivan]

Thank you! I'll add it to my to-buy list!

Daniel