This is a remarkable book about ordinary people in North Korea.
"Nothing to Envy" is a depressing book but gripping -- it is oddly reminiscent of Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder.
The famine in Ukraine caused by Stalin is not very different from the mid-1990s famine in North Korea. Arguably Stalin's famine was more intentional than that of Kim Jong-il but they both arose from a murderous purity of ideology that ignored the individual in favour of the collective.
My own sense is that the terror-famine in Ukraine (Holodomor:
Голодомор) is properly seen as genocide intended to destroy Ukraine as a nation -- but how different is that from Kim Jong-il starving perhaps 10% or more of North Korea to maintain Juche?
Regardless, download or buy "Nothing to Envy"; it is an important book.
4 comments:
Again your Marxist roots are showing.
Same with Mao's great leap forward.
Check out Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine by Jasper Becker. Communists nations all seem to have this perverse need to murder their people
Yes, it's on my list of books to read. The NYR reviewed it an issue or two ago. Truth is Communism truly was a God that Failed.
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