Brandon K Gauthier - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Publications by Brandon K Gauthier

Research paper thumbnail of Before Evil: Young Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, and Kim (Release Date: 4/26/22)

Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cru... more Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cruel dictators wrote their names on the pages of history in the blood of countless innocent victims. Yet they themselves were once young people searching for their place in the world, dealing with challenges many of us face—parental authority, education, romance, loss—and doing so in ways that might be uncomfortably familiar.

Historian Brandon K. Gauthier has created a fascinating work—epic yet intimate, well-researched but immensely readable, clear-eyed and empathetic—looking at the lives of these six dictators, with a focus on their youths. We watch Lenin’s older brother executed at the hands of the Tsar’s police—an event that helped radicalize this overachieving high-schooler. We observe Stalin grappling with the death of his young, beautiful wife. We see Hitler’s mother mourning the loss of three young children—and determined that her first son to survive infancy would find his place in the world.

The purpose isn’t to excuse or simply explain these horrible men, but rather to treat them with the empathy they themselves too often lacked. We may prefer to hold such lives at arm’s length so as to demonize them at will, but this book reminds us that these monstrous rulers were also human beings—and perhaps more relatable than we’d like.

“Brandon Gauthier is that rare academic whose writing is both incisive and clear; even more than that, it is entertaining. Here he has chosen a subject that, on the face of it, isolates an alarming contradiction, one rarely confronted, that history’s worst butchers (he chooses Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Mao, and Kim Il Sung, but they stand for the full rogues gallery) were once cuddly infants, playful schoolchildren, and sexed up teenagers. The result is a book that is as enlightening as it is disturbing, in part because we get a fresh view of history’s criminals, more so because in them, we can also see ourselves.”

— Todd Brewster, New York Times best-selling author of The Century (with Peter Jennings) and Lincoln's Gamble

"Before Evil isn’t your average history. Written in a colloquial language. Like listening to an old friend, not a stuffy intellectual. It tells the story of some of history's most reviled men. Dictators and despots. As though they were the dorky teens we all once were. Brandon Gauthier has done a first rate job in dispelling the myth that these tyrants were anything other than human. Same as you and I."

— Steve Anwyll, author of Welfare (Tyrant Books)

“We mustn't forget the terrifying dictators who were behind the policies foreign and domestic that made much of the 20th century such a bloody hell for so many. But Brandon Gauthier in this meticulously researched, compellingly written, highly accessible volume shows why we need to remember them less as monstrous aberrations, more as human beings who ended up demonstrating the capability of our species for evil.”

— Bradley K. Martin, author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

“Before Evil opens a compelling window into the humanity of some of the most tyrannical despots of the modern era. At times poignant, powerful, erudite, and even humorous, it reminds us that those we consider truly evil are still truly human, and that the lines between good and evil are not as simple as we might like to believe.”

— Mitchell Lerner, Professor of History and Director of the East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University

“Brandon Gauthier has written a powerful investigation into the myriad influences that created six of the most evil men in modern history. Before Evil deftly explains in stunning detail how Lenin, Hitler, Stalin Mao, Mussolini and Kim slowly turned from unremarkable children into authoritarian adults whose choices affected the course of the entire world. By asking readers to grapple with the humanity of men who are widely abhorred, Gauthier provides a fresh way to understand why these six leaders were able to wield power—and how dictators could use those same tactics to rise again.”

— Beth Knobel, Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University

“For the past 30 years I have worked as a psychological expert witness in murder cases and visited with children and youth in war zones around the world. I have struggled, as has Brandon Gauthier, to find a 'human' explanation for the psychological realities of violence and evil that I have encountered first-hand in prisons and refugee camps. His book is a significant contribution in that morally and emotionally challenging but necessary task. A fascinating book!”

— James Garbarino, Professor of Humanistic Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, author of Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them

“A lively yet rigorously researched inquiry into how and why some innocent little children grow up to become mass-murdering monsters.”

— Daniel Kalder, author of The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Jung H. Pak, Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer's Insights Into North Korea's Enigmatic Young Dictator (New York: Ballantine Books, 2020).

A Review of Jung H. Pak's Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer's Insights Into North Korea'... more A Review of Jung H. Pak's Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer's Insights Into North Korea's Enigmatic Young Dictator

Research paper thumbnail of The Other Korea: Ideological Constructions of North Korea in the American Imagination, 1948-2000 (Completed April 2016; Copyright: All Rights Reserved)

This dissertation examines how portrayals of North Korea by the U.S. government and popular media... more This dissertation examines how portrayals of North Korea by the U.S. government and popular media diminished the possibility of diplomatic cooperation between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) over the second half of the twentieth century. It specifically argues that policymakers and journalists, among other observers in U.S. society, primarily made sense of the DPRK’s often-brutal actions by describing it as either a puppet of the Soviet Union and China or as an irrational actor incapable of pragmatic dialogue. These reductive caricatures—a product, in part, of evolving ideologies in American society related to the Cold War, foreign policy, and race—blinded policymakers to the nationalistic motives behind North Korea’s decision-making and led the general public to misunderstand events in Korea. While analyzing how intertwined links between culture and national identity influenced American foreign policy in East Asia, this work thus highlights the fundamental misperceptions that so often shaped U.S. decision-making vis-à-vis the DPRK since the Korean War.

Research paper thumbnail of Atlantic.com: What It Was Like to Negotiate With North Koreans 60 Years Ago

A narrative overview of Korean War Armistice Negotiations through the eyes of U.S. officials

Research paper thumbnail of Letter to the Washington Post: Try Negotiating with North Korea

Research paper thumbnail of REVIEW: Jang Jin-sung, Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee—A Look Inside North Korea (New York: Atria, 2014)

Research paper thumbnail of The 1996 Gangneung Submarine Infiltration Incident

On September 18, 1996, Lee Jin Gyu, a South Korean taxi cab driver, was taking a passenger on the... more On September 18, 1996, Lee Jin Gyu, a South Korean taxi cab driver, was taking a passenger on the Gangneung-Tonghae coastal highway. A little before one in the morning, the driver noticed a group of men clustered on the side of the highway

Original article at NKNews: http://www.nknews.org/2012/09/this-day-in-the-history-of-the-dprk-2/

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Cheehyung Harrison Kim, Heroes and Toilers: Work as Life in Postwar North Korea (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018)

Research paper thumbnail of “A TORTURED RELIC: The Lasting Legacy of the Korean War and Portrayals of  ‘North Korea’ in the U.S. Media, 1953-1962" in the Journal of American-East Asian Relations

Drawing on national and local news stories, newly declassified documents, U.S. prisoner of war (P... more Drawing on national and local news stories, newly declassified documents, U.S. prisoner of war (POW) memoirs, and popular films, this article argues that the legacy of the Korean War in the United States from 1953 to 1962 dramatically shaped how Americans imagined the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). It specifically examines how media portrayals of North Korean atrocities, the alleged misconduct of U.S. captives, and the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and the DPRK affected public perceptions of “North Korea” as a subjective construct. The painful legacy of the Korean War, particularly the experience of U.S. POWs, encouraged Americans to think of North Korea as an inherently violent foe and as part of a broader “Oriental Communist” enemy in the Cold War. When the experiences of U.S. soldiers contradicted these narratives, media sources often made distinctions between “North Koreans,” a repugnant racial and ideological “other,” and “north Koreans,” potential U.S. friends and allies.

Research paper thumbnail of June 25, 1950: The day South Korea faced the merciless reality of extinction

Deafening artillery and mortar fire soared across the 38th parallel before dawn on Sunday, June 2... more Deafening artillery and mortar fire soared across the 38th parallel before dawn on Sunday, June 25. In the early morning light, over a hundred thousand soldiers from the Korean People’s Army (KPA) flooded into South Korea. Heavy Russian-made tanks crushed stupefied defenders. Marauding fighter planes hummed overhead, strafing at will.

The Republic of Korea faced the merciless reality of extinction.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Young Ick Lew, Making Of The First Korean President: Syngman Rhee's Quest for Independence, 1875-1948 (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2013)

The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, Volume 22, Issue 1, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of A TALE OF TWO NORTH KOREANS: A Review of Blaine Harden's The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot

Published in Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer 2015): 140-141. RE... more Published in Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer 2015): 140-141.

REVIEW: Blaine Harden, The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom (New York: Viking, 2015); 304 pages; $27.95.

In The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot, Blaine Harden, the famed author of Escape from Camp 14, recounts the first years of the North Korean state through the experiences of Kim Il Sung and No Kum Sok. The stories of the former, the founder of the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK) and the latter, a North Korean fighter pilot-turned-defector, remind us of the diverse individuals who sought to navigate the DPRK’s first tumultuous years. As Kim triumphed in power struggles at the top and sought to remake North Korea in his own image, No, whose father had worked for the Japanese before August 1945, survived at the bottom by praising communism until he could escape to South Korea...

Research paper thumbnail of A Letter on Teaching to the Fordham University History Department

https://history.blog.fordham.edu/?p=2477

Research paper thumbnail of The Day Kim Jong Il Was Born

On a May evening in 1941, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk made love in a tent in the Soviet Far East... more On a May evening in 1941, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk made love in a tent in the Soviet Far East. Newlyweds, they gave themselves to each other, unaware of what the future would bring—their intimacy a result of their mutual struggle against the Japanese. The two revolutionaries shared a rare marital bond: they had fought side-by-side at moments when death seemed certain.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: William T. Bowers and John T. Greenwood, eds. Combat in Korea:  Passing the Test, April-June 1951 (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky, 2011)

The Oral History Review: Journal of the Oral History Association, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer/Fall 2014)

Research paper thumbnail of When the first American soldier defected to North Korea

Research paper thumbnail of How Kim Jong Il Reacted To The 2003 Invasion of Iraq

Research paper thumbnail of The strange story of one Korean War POW: How a Japanese-American soldier used ethnicity to escape North Korea

The fury of the Korean War raged all around Private First Class Jack Arakawa on July 16, 1950. In... more The fury of the Korean War raged all around Private First Class Jack Arakawa on July 16, 1950. In hastily prepared defensive positions outside the South Korean town of Taejon, his unit watched grimly as North Korean tanks raced towards them.

Research paper thumbnail of North Korea International Documentation Project e-Dossier no. 18:  North Korea's American Allies

Research paper thumbnail of “‘Bring All the Troops Home Now!’ The American-Korean Friendship and Information Center and North Korean Public Diplomacy, 1971-1976"

Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Spring/Summer 2014)

While scholars of the "new diplomatic history" have extensively analyzed the role of culture and ... more While scholars of the "new diplomatic history" have extensively analyzed the role of culture and ideology in the history of American foreign relations, the historiography of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Democratic of the cultural, intellectual, and political narratives that have long shaped how historians have yet to consider how American attitudes about North Korea were understanding, this paper details the history of the American-Korean Friendship imperialist peace organization," that sought to generate public support for the DPRK and force the withdrawal of American troops from the Korean peninsula. Utilizing interviews with former members of the group and its journal: Korea Fowith the AKFIC-alongside other "friendship societies" across the world-to harof the AKFIC sought to manipulate public anger over the Vietnam War and promote North Korean demands that US forces should withdraw from the Republic of Korea (ROK).

Research paper thumbnail of Before Evil: Young Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, and Kim (Release Date: 4/26/22)

Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cru... more Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mao Zedong. Kim Il Sung. Vladimir Lenin. These cruel dictators wrote their names on the pages of history in the blood of countless innocent victims. Yet they themselves were once young people searching for their place in the world, dealing with challenges many of us face—parental authority, education, romance, loss—and doing so in ways that might be uncomfortably familiar.

Historian Brandon K. Gauthier has created a fascinating work—epic yet intimate, well-researched but immensely readable, clear-eyed and empathetic—looking at the lives of these six dictators, with a focus on their youths. We watch Lenin’s older brother executed at the hands of the Tsar’s police—an event that helped radicalize this overachieving high-schooler. We observe Stalin grappling with the death of his young, beautiful wife. We see Hitler’s mother mourning the loss of three young children—and determined that her first son to survive infancy would find his place in the world.

The purpose isn’t to excuse or simply explain these horrible men, but rather to treat them with the empathy they themselves too often lacked. We may prefer to hold such lives at arm’s length so as to demonize them at will, but this book reminds us that these monstrous rulers were also human beings—and perhaps more relatable than we’d like.

“Brandon Gauthier is that rare academic whose writing is both incisive and clear; even more than that, it is entertaining. Here he has chosen a subject that, on the face of it, isolates an alarming contradiction, one rarely confronted, that history’s worst butchers (he chooses Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Mao, and Kim Il Sung, but they stand for the full rogues gallery) were once cuddly infants, playful schoolchildren, and sexed up teenagers. The result is a book that is as enlightening as it is disturbing, in part because we get a fresh view of history’s criminals, more so because in them, we can also see ourselves.”

— Todd Brewster, New York Times best-selling author of The Century (with Peter Jennings) and Lincoln's Gamble

"Before Evil isn’t your average history. Written in a colloquial language. Like listening to an old friend, not a stuffy intellectual. It tells the story of some of history's most reviled men. Dictators and despots. As though they were the dorky teens we all once were. Brandon Gauthier has done a first rate job in dispelling the myth that these tyrants were anything other than human. Same as you and I."

— Steve Anwyll, author of Welfare (Tyrant Books)

“We mustn't forget the terrifying dictators who were behind the policies foreign and domestic that made much of the 20th century such a bloody hell for so many. But Brandon Gauthier in this meticulously researched, compellingly written, highly accessible volume shows why we need to remember them less as monstrous aberrations, more as human beings who ended up demonstrating the capability of our species for evil.”

— Bradley K. Martin, author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

“Before Evil opens a compelling window into the humanity of some of the most tyrannical despots of the modern era. At times poignant, powerful, erudite, and even humorous, it reminds us that those we consider truly evil are still truly human, and that the lines between good and evil are not as simple as we might like to believe.”

— Mitchell Lerner, Professor of History and Director of the East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University

“Brandon Gauthier has written a powerful investigation into the myriad influences that created six of the most evil men in modern history. Before Evil deftly explains in stunning detail how Lenin, Hitler, Stalin Mao, Mussolini and Kim slowly turned from unremarkable children into authoritarian adults whose choices affected the course of the entire world. By asking readers to grapple with the humanity of men who are widely abhorred, Gauthier provides a fresh way to understand why these six leaders were able to wield power—and how dictators could use those same tactics to rise again.”

— Beth Knobel, Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University

“For the past 30 years I have worked as a psychological expert witness in murder cases and visited with children and youth in war zones around the world. I have struggled, as has Brandon Gauthier, to find a 'human' explanation for the psychological realities of violence and evil that I have encountered first-hand in prisons and refugee camps. His book is a significant contribution in that morally and emotionally challenging but necessary task. A fascinating book!”

— James Garbarino, Professor of Humanistic Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, author of Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them

“A lively yet rigorously researched inquiry into how and why some innocent little children grow up to become mass-murdering monsters.”

— Daniel Kalder, author of The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Jung H. Pak, Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer's Insights Into North Korea's Enigmatic Young Dictator (New York: Ballantine Books, 2020).

A Review of Jung H. Pak's Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer's Insights Into North Korea'... more A Review of Jung H. Pak's Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer's Insights Into North Korea's Enigmatic Young Dictator

Research paper thumbnail of The Other Korea: Ideological Constructions of North Korea in the American Imagination, 1948-2000 (Completed April 2016; Copyright: All Rights Reserved)

This dissertation examines how portrayals of North Korea by the U.S. government and popular media... more This dissertation examines how portrayals of North Korea by the U.S. government and popular media diminished the possibility of diplomatic cooperation between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) over the second half of the twentieth century. It specifically argues that policymakers and journalists, among other observers in U.S. society, primarily made sense of the DPRK’s often-brutal actions by describing it as either a puppet of the Soviet Union and China or as an irrational actor incapable of pragmatic dialogue. These reductive caricatures—a product, in part, of evolving ideologies in American society related to the Cold War, foreign policy, and race—blinded policymakers to the nationalistic motives behind North Korea’s decision-making and led the general public to misunderstand events in Korea. While analyzing how intertwined links between culture and national identity influenced American foreign policy in East Asia, this work thus highlights the fundamental misperceptions that so often shaped U.S. decision-making vis-à-vis the DPRK since the Korean War.

Research paper thumbnail of Atlantic.com: What It Was Like to Negotiate With North Koreans 60 Years Ago

A narrative overview of Korean War Armistice Negotiations through the eyes of U.S. officials

Research paper thumbnail of Letter to the Washington Post: Try Negotiating with North Korea

Research paper thumbnail of REVIEW: Jang Jin-sung, Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee—A Look Inside North Korea (New York: Atria, 2014)

Research paper thumbnail of The 1996 Gangneung Submarine Infiltration Incident

On September 18, 1996, Lee Jin Gyu, a South Korean taxi cab driver, was taking a passenger on the... more On September 18, 1996, Lee Jin Gyu, a South Korean taxi cab driver, was taking a passenger on the Gangneung-Tonghae coastal highway. A little before one in the morning, the driver noticed a group of men clustered on the side of the highway

Original article at NKNews: http://www.nknews.org/2012/09/this-day-in-the-history-of-the-dprk-2/

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Cheehyung Harrison Kim, Heroes and Toilers: Work as Life in Postwar North Korea (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018)

Research paper thumbnail of “A TORTURED RELIC: The Lasting Legacy of the Korean War and Portrayals of  ‘North Korea’ in the U.S. Media, 1953-1962" in the Journal of American-East Asian Relations

Drawing on national and local news stories, newly declassified documents, U.S. prisoner of war (P... more Drawing on national and local news stories, newly declassified documents, U.S. prisoner of war (POW) memoirs, and popular films, this article argues that the legacy of the Korean War in the United States from 1953 to 1962 dramatically shaped how Americans imagined the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). It specifically examines how media portrayals of North Korean atrocities, the alleged misconduct of U.S. captives, and the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and the DPRK affected public perceptions of “North Korea” as a subjective construct. The painful legacy of the Korean War, particularly the experience of U.S. POWs, encouraged Americans to think of North Korea as an inherently violent foe and as part of a broader “Oriental Communist” enemy in the Cold War. When the experiences of U.S. soldiers contradicted these narratives, media sources often made distinctions between “North Koreans,” a repugnant racial and ideological “other,” and “north Koreans,” potential U.S. friends and allies.

Research paper thumbnail of June 25, 1950: The day South Korea faced the merciless reality of extinction

Deafening artillery and mortar fire soared across the 38th parallel before dawn on Sunday, June 2... more Deafening artillery and mortar fire soared across the 38th parallel before dawn on Sunday, June 25. In the early morning light, over a hundred thousand soldiers from the Korean People’s Army (KPA) flooded into South Korea. Heavy Russian-made tanks crushed stupefied defenders. Marauding fighter planes hummed overhead, strafing at will.

The Republic of Korea faced the merciless reality of extinction.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Young Ick Lew, Making Of The First Korean President: Syngman Rhee's Quest for Independence, 1875-1948 (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2013)

The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, Volume 22, Issue 1, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of A TALE OF TWO NORTH KOREANS: A Review of Blaine Harden's The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot

Published in Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer 2015): 140-141. RE... more Published in Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer 2015): 140-141.

REVIEW: Blaine Harden, The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom (New York: Viking, 2015); 304 pages; $27.95.

In The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot, Blaine Harden, the famed author of Escape from Camp 14, recounts the first years of the North Korean state through the experiences of Kim Il Sung and No Kum Sok. The stories of the former, the founder of the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK) and the latter, a North Korean fighter pilot-turned-defector, remind us of the diverse individuals who sought to navigate the DPRK’s first tumultuous years. As Kim triumphed in power struggles at the top and sought to remake North Korea in his own image, No, whose father had worked for the Japanese before August 1945, survived at the bottom by praising communism until he could escape to South Korea...

Research paper thumbnail of A Letter on Teaching to the Fordham University History Department

https://history.blog.fordham.edu/?p=2477

Research paper thumbnail of The Day Kim Jong Il Was Born

On a May evening in 1941, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk made love in a tent in the Soviet Far East... more On a May evening in 1941, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk made love in a tent in the Soviet Far East. Newlyweds, they gave themselves to each other, unaware of what the future would bring—their intimacy a result of their mutual struggle against the Japanese. The two revolutionaries shared a rare marital bond: they had fought side-by-side at moments when death seemed certain.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: William T. Bowers and John T. Greenwood, eds. Combat in Korea:  Passing the Test, April-June 1951 (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky, 2011)

The Oral History Review: Journal of the Oral History Association, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer/Fall 2014)

Research paper thumbnail of When the first American soldier defected to North Korea

Research paper thumbnail of How Kim Jong Il Reacted To The 2003 Invasion of Iraq

Research paper thumbnail of The strange story of one Korean War POW: How a Japanese-American soldier used ethnicity to escape North Korea

The fury of the Korean War raged all around Private First Class Jack Arakawa on July 16, 1950. In... more The fury of the Korean War raged all around Private First Class Jack Arakawa on July 16, 1950. In hastily prepared defensive positions outside the South Korean town of Taejon, his unit watched grimly as North Korean tanks raced towards them.

Research paper thumbnail of North Korea International Documentation Project e-Dossier no. 18:  North Korea's American Allies

Research paper thumbnail of “‘Bring All the Troops Home Now!’ The American-Korean Friendship and Information Center and North Korean Public Diplomacy, 1971-1976"

Yonsei Journal of International Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Spring/Summer 2014)

While scholars of the "new diplomatic history" have extensively analyzed the role of culture and ... more While scholars of the "new diplomatic history" have extensively analyzed the role of culture and ideology in the history of American foreign relations, the historiography of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Democratic of the cultural, intellectual, and political narratives that have long shaped how historians have yet to consider how American attitudes about North Korea were understanding, this paper details the history of the American-Korean Friendship imperialist peace organization," that sought to generate public support for the DPRK and force the withdrawal of American troops from the Korean peninsula. Utilizing interviews with former members of the group and its journal: Korea Fowith the AKFIC-alongside other "friendship societies" across the world-to harof the AKFIC sought to manipulate public anger over the Vietnam War and promote North Korean demands that US forces should withdraw from the Republic of Korea (ROK).

Research paper thumbnail of At The Korea Society: "Changing American Perceptions of North Korea since 1948"

View this presentation online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrU36heI3P8&feature=youtu.be "Thi... more View this presentation online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrU36heI3P8&feature=youtu.be

"This presentation will examine how portrayals of North Korea by the U.S. government and popular media diminished the possibility of diplomatic cooperation between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) over the second half of the twentieth century. It will specifically argue that policymakers and journalists, among other observers in U.S. society, primarily made sense of the DPRK’s often-brutal actions by describing it as either a puppet of the Soviet Union and China or as an irrational actor incapable of pragmatic dialogue. These reductive caricatures—a product, in part, of evolving ideologies in American society related to the Cold War, foreign policy, and race—blinded policymakers to the nationalistic motives behind North Korea’s decision-making and led the general public to misunderstand events in Korea. While analyzing how intertwined links between culture and national identity influenced American foreign policy in East Asia, this discussion thus highlights the fundamental misperceptions that so often shaped U.S. decision-making vis-à-vis the DPRK since the Korean War."

Research paper thumbnail of “From the New York Times to the Daily Worker: Visual Representations of ‘North Korea’ in the U.S. Media”

Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, January 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of “‘A Mad Dog Barks at the Moon’: the United States and North Korea during the ‘Second Korean War,’ 1963-1969”

Paper to be presented at New York Conference on Asian Studies, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, ... more Paper to be presented at New York Conference on Asian Studies, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 2015.

Research paper thumbnail of From Cold War Puppet to Rogue Regime: Portrayals of ‘North Korea’ in the United States, 1950-1996

Paper to be presented at the 2015 World Congress for Korean Politics and Society in Gyeongju, Rep... more Paper to be presented at the 2015 World Congress for Korean Politics and Society in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea, August 2015.

Research paper thumbnail of “‘Bullwhip Barbarians…the Worst of This Breed': Postwar Portrayals of ‘North Korea’ in the U.S. media, 1953-1963”

Lecture presented at New York University-Tamiment Library Center for the United States and the Co... more Lecture presented at New York University-Tamiment Library Center for the United States and the Cold War, February 2015.

Research paper thumbnail of “‘ONE STEP ABOVE ANIMALS’: North Koreans in the American imagination, 1950-1976”

Research paper thumbnail of “'A foe who fights with a blend of Asian fatalism and Communist fanaticism': Wartime Depictions of North Korea in American Society, 1950-1953"

Research paper thumbnail of  “Bring All the Troops Home Now!” The American-Korean Friendship and Information Center and North Korean Public Diplomacy, 1971-1976

Research paper thumbnail of The Caution of History: John F. Kennedy, the Test Ban, and the Origins of the International Non-proliferation Regime

Research paper thumbnail of The Caution of History: JFK, the Test Ban, and the INNPR