The Capitalist Unconscious

Patrick Chung:
A much-needed examination of North Korea and its relationship to South Korea, China, and global capitalism writ large.

A deeply moving, warm personal tale.

Provocative and engaging.

Gay Seidman, University of Wisconsin-Madison:
Combining broad theoretical insights into Korea's rapidly changing political economy with vivid ethnographic details of migrant workers' experiences, Hyun Ok Park's The Capitalist Unconscious challenges us to reimagine the region's present, as well as its future. It will provoke lively debates about the construction of 'transnational Korea' in the twenty-first century.

Andre Schmid, University of Toronto:
One of the most provocative works on North Korea to emerge in years, Hyun Ok Park's The Capitalist Unconscious offers a fresh look at the past twenty years of political and socioeconomic changes in Northeast Asia. Her focus is on labor moving across borders—how it moves, generates wealth, and transforms every place it travels. The two Koreas, we learn, might not be so divided after all.

Harry Harootunian, Columbia University:
A stunningly original and significant contribution to a field that seems mired in a Cold War long passed. Not only does Hyun Ok Park seek to untie the knotted problem of the two Koreas, but she also persuasively provides an exemplary guide to how best unveil the interacting entanglements of history and the contemporary moment.