Pg. 69: "Famine in North Korea"

Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform is the new book by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, with a foreword by Amartya Sen.

The authors put the book to The Page 69 Test.

From the publisher's description:

In the mid-1990s, as many as one million North Koreans died in one of the worst famines of the twentieth century.... [Haggard and Noland examine] not only the origins and aftermath of the crisis but also the regime's response to outside aid and the effect of its current policies on the country's economic future. Their study begins by considering the root causes of the famine, weighing the effects of the decline in the availability of food against its poor distribution. Then it takes a close look at the aid effort, addressing the difficulty of monitoring assistance within the country, and concludes with an analysis of current economic reforms and strategies of engagement.

Among the endorsements for Famine in North Korea:

"Famine in North Korea is the authoritative account of the famine, examining its origins and impact from the level of the individual household to the high politics of international diplomacy. It is an extraordinary book, essential reading for anyone interested in the issues of famine, economic transition, and the future of the Korean peninsula."
—Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, and author of Making Globalization Work

"The UN General Assembly resolutions on human rights in North Korea have underscored the failure of the North Korean government to protect its people from gross human rights abuses. In Famine in North Korea, Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland compellingly outline the case with respect to food. This book is critical for any understanding of the humanitarian and human rights crisis on the Korean peninsula."
—Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic

Anna Fifield reviewed the book for the Financial Times.

Read an interview with the authors and an excerpt from the book.

Stephan Haggard is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Pathways from the Periphery; The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions (with Robert Kaufman); and The Political Economy of the Asian Financial Crisis.

Marcus Noland is a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics and author of the forthcoming Arab Economies in a Changing World. He is a former senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He has served as an occasional consultant to such organizations as the World Bank and the National Intelligence Council and on numerous occasions has testified before the US Congress.

--Marshal Zeringue