Review by Choice Review
Park (Claremont McKenna College) demonstrates how three popular religion-based groups--the Ch'ongdogyo (a modern Confucian/Taoist/shamanistic-inspired religion), the Presbyterian Church, and the YMCA--tried to create a new rural society, as the title suggests, where Koreans could mitigate changes caused by the onslaught of capitalism. The author focuses on the 1920s and 1930s, from the time religious leaders reformed their movements to address criticisms that followed the March 1, 1919, independence movement to the increased penetration into rural society by Japan as it mobilized for war with China. Leftists and bourgeois nationalists attacked religion for being unable to contribute to a new, modernizing society. Park argues that these groups presented a third alternative to an agrarianism that sought to revive the past in the rural present and to leftists and nationalists who totally rejected the past in order to focus on the future. Religion provided a unique social and cultural solution to rural problems. Interestingly, Danish cooperatives were one source of inspiration for this rural utopia. Park's book is a much-needed intervention in the study of modern East Asian history and serves as a model for how the East Asian history field can locate itself within global history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. --Michael John Wert, Marquette University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
