As featured on Donna's Book Blog

Donna's Book Blog

The author’s forty year experience of Asia provides absorbing insights into the realities of North Korea and its ruling family. North Korea continues to present a serious threat to world peace and the Korean War has still not been fully terminated in a Peace Treaty. An understanding of the threat and the aims of its leaders is of vital importance. – Most Highly Recommended.

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Firetrench

A balanced and insightful exploration of North Korea, accessible and succinct, and from a knowledgeable and informed author.

NetGalley, Mandy Jenkinson

This smashing book written by Professor Paul Moorcraft is a tour de force, he has taught politics and journalism and it shows.The book is very approachable and written in a style which assists the novice to keep up with the plot dealing with the vagaries of North Korea it's not always that easy. I would say that this should have been entitled " All you ever wanted to know about North Korea but were frightened to ask." If you were starting a military book library you would do well to buy this book first to find out how governments control the people, the machine of state and their own dubious family. Kim two and three have managed the process of inheriting their fathers totalitarian state in a way which can only be admired by those who study the politics reale. How can this small state keep the Russians Chinese and the USA on its toes is explained in simple terms to enable us to understated nuclear politics. I am going to give this book five mushroom heads and its potentially going to be my book of the year. If you study warfare you need this on your shelf.

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Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)

This is an engaging and informative work.

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GoodReads, Robert Neil Smith

Moorcraft gives us a book that makes us understand many of the dynamics of power behind an extremely mysterious state and far from our way of thinking.

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On The Old Barbed Wire

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

North Korea is a controversial and isolated country and the author of this book goes into how they came to be an enemy to so many others. The history of this country is fascinating and the author made sure to highlight important events in its history, but didn't go overboard and write a book that would bore those non-history fanatics. This is a great resource for anyone that is wondering why North Korea has such contentious relationships and of the rise of its leaders.

NetGalley, Cristie Underwood

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I've been fascinated with North Korea for years now and have read most of the major works written on it. If someone asked me where to start reading to understand North Korea, I would point them to this book. It is a wonderfully succinct primer covering both the history of how we got here, where we are now, and what the future might look like without overwhelming the reader with all of the nuance and detail that some longtime North Korea watchers find fascinating, but novices might find tedious. The bibliography is solid, a testament to the Moorcraft's ability to condense 70+ years of complicated history into a short book while thoroughly covering the subject matter enough for someone well-versed would be pleased, but not so much as to overwhelm those with casual interest. The writing strikes a great balance between a serious academic overview and the inevitable humor that must come from discussing some of North Korea's overzealous and bombastic rhetoric.

NetGalley, Brandon Bierley

This book explains how the Kim family has retained power in North Korea initially through the luck of having two superpower communist dictatorship backers and when that support became less reliable, by building its own nuclear deterrent. The author explains how the Kim leadership has leveraged security for themselves and their circle at the expense of the general population, of whom I can only and with apologies paraphrase the immortal words of Midge Ure; Tonight thank God its them instead of you. A truly shocking exposition of State abuse of its people that explains how dictatorships survive.

Michael McCarthy. Battlefield Guide

Michael McCarthy