Book Description

This book is aimed at two groups of readers in particular. The first group is American readers, since some Americans may be interested in reading about how their history is interpreted from a Korean historian's perspective. Due to the position and power of the United States in the world, there are various ways in which historians around the world, not to mention American historians, understand and analyze US history. The second target reader group comprises the Koreans, since the United States is a mirror that reflects Korea's past, present, and future. In that respect, looking at American history from a Korean perspective would help Koreans understand the nation's past and present.This book tries to find answers to three questions that the author have in American history. First, many Americans view their country as a "country of liberty." National pride often makes people associate their country with a value they themselves admire. It is uncommon, however, for countries to think of their country as a synonym for specific values--a term that represents it, as does liberty in the United States. Hence, it is worth tracing America's various identities across the entire history of the United States, where Americans have come to regard their country as a country of liberty and how it has become established. Second, the United States has been overwhelmed by regional conflicts since the beginning of the Union. The Civil War, which broke out in 1861, was a tragedy born out of regional conflicts. We have witnessed countless cases in world history where regional conflicts and emotions interfered with a country's progress, and some of these conflicts have had tragic consequences. Korea is no exception in this regard. Therefore, it is worth asking how the United States overcame the tragedy of the Civil War.Finally, it can be said that the American people have admired only a few US presidents in the history of their nation. Asking American students to name the five most respected presidents would be easy, but it would not be comfortable to ask for ten. If the United States' presidents are classified as good and not-so-good for convenience, there will be far more not-so-good presidents than good presidents. That being said, why do most Americans think presidential leadership has played an essential role in American democracy and prosperity? These questions will be the primary focus of this book, which does not follow the conventional writing style of a history book that is written in chronological order. Instead, this is an interpretative history of the United States, with several themes: presidential leadership and American democracy, regional conflicts, frontier experience, multiculturalism, and foreign relations. By considering such themes, this book provides a retrospective look at the history of the United States. Also, unlike the traditional method of using the third-person pronoun, in this book, this book uses the first-person pronoun--because author's experiences and observations serve as an essential part of the contents.