It would be hard to argue that there is a person of greater influence—and controversy—over Korea’s first six decades of the twentieth century than Syngman Rhee. It comes as little surprise that historians continue to grapple with his appropriate place in the country’s modern development: Is he to be remembered as an architect of the Republic of Korea (ROK) or as a divider of the Korean peninsula? The contribution of Foreign Friends to this history sees Rhee as an inadvertent divider. The book, chronologically organized, offers the ROK’s first president a generous narrative, from his experiences in a mission school to his rise to power in the immediate postliberation period of Korean history. It touches briefly on Rhee’s activities that led him to assuming the ROK presidency from 1948, but it avoids his controversial twelve-year period in office. David Fields defines his purpose as “tell[ing] the story of how Rhee...
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