This is the first full-scale comparative study of the nature of slavery. In a work of prodigious scholarship and enormous breadth; which draws on the tribal; ancient; premodern; and modern worlds; Orlando Patterson discusses the internal dynamics of slavery in sixty-six societies over time. These include Greece and Rome; medieval Europe; China; Korea; the Islamic kingdoms; Africa; the Caribbean islands; and the American South. Slavery is shown to be a parasitic relationship between master and slave; invariably entailing the violent domination of a natally alienated; or socially dead; person. The phenomenon of slavery as an institution; the author argues; is a single process of recruitment; incorporation on the margin of society; and eventual manumission or death. Distinctions abound in this work. Beyond the reconceptualization of the basic master-slave relationship and the redefinition of slavery as an institution with universal attributes; Patterson rejects the legalistic Roman concept that places the "slave as property" at the core of the system. Rather; he emphasizes the centrality of sociological; symbolic; and ideological factors interwoven within the slavery system. Along the whole continuum of slavery; the cultural milieu is stressed; as well as political and psychological elements. Materialistic and racial factors are deemphasized. The author is thus able; for example; to deal with "elite" slaves; or even eunuchs; in the same framework of understanding as fieldhands; to uncover previously hidden principles of inheritance of slave and free status; and to show the tight relationship between slavery and freedom. Interdisciplinary in its methods; this study employs qualitative and quantitative techniques from all the social sciences to demonstrate the universality of structures and processes in slave systems and to reveal cross-cultural variations in the slave trade and in slavery; in rates of manumission; and in the status of freedmen. Slavery and Social Death lays out a vast new corpus of research that underpins an original and provocative thesis.
#307100 in Books Eckert Carter J 2016-11-07Original language:English 9.75 x 1.75 x 6.50l; .0 #File Name: 0674659864512 pagesPark Chung Hee and Modern Korea The Roots of Militarism 1866 1945
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Dong Won KimIf you want to know and understand "true" Park Chung Hee; read this book!5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. A Valuable Contribution to the Literature on the History of South KoreaBy long runnerThe first of a planned two-volume work; this book examines the role of the military in Korean society during the late Choseon era and the Japanese occupation. The first part of the book traces how; during the late 1800s; Korea’s rulers slowly awakened to the fact that the country was buffeted by the imperialist powers surrounding it; and realized the need for a well-equipped; modern national military force.The book goes on to provide an extraordinarily thorough analysis of the military culture that developed during the period of Japanese occupation (1905-45); the crucible that molded Park Chung Hee. The author describes in painstaking detail the operation of the military academies in Manchuria and Japan where Park was trained. The thesis is that the military-first orientation; with its relentless emphasis on discipline and goals; would become the defining characteristic of Park’s rule of Korea; enabling both the rise of the modern industrial state and iron-handed suppression of political opposition.The author’s thorough understanding of the political dynamics of the time and exhaustive research give the book’s analysis and conclusions undeniable authority. This book will surely be indispensable to scholars of the period. But readers expecting a biography of Park Chung Hee will be disappointed. The author approaches the subject from the perspective of Korea’s place in the world; shedding little light on Park’s family life and personality and largely omitting Park’s personal thoughts and feelings during his formative years. (Perhaps such information simply wasn’t available despite the author’s exhaustive research.) Presumably the forthcoming second volume will provide greater insight into the character and personality of the leader who largely shaped the modern state of South Korea. I can’t wait to read it.
