The Great Enterprise

<div>In <i>The Great Enterprise</i> Henry H. Em examines how the project of national sovereignty shaped the work of Korean historians and their representations of Korea's past. The goal of Korea attaining validity and equal standing among sovereign nations Em shows was foundational to modern Korean politics in that it served a pedagogical function for Japanese and Western imperialisms as well as for Korean nationalism. Sovereignty thus functioned as police power and political power in shaping Korea's modernity including anticolonial and postcolonial movements toward a radically democratic politics.<p>Surveying historical works written over the course of the twentieth century Em elucidates the influence of Christian missionaries as well as the role that Japan's colonial policy played in determining the narrative framework for defining Korea's national past. Em goes on to analyze postcolonial works in which South Korean historians promoted national narratives appropriate for South Korea's place in the U.S.-led Cold War system. Throughout Em highlights equal sovereignty's creative and productive potential to generate oppositional subjectivities and vital political alternatives.</p></div>