"The Cleanest Race"

The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters (B.R. Myers)

This book takes a very unusual approach - because the information coming out of North Korea is so limited, the author has constructed a view of contemporary North Korean society and attitudes based on both internal and external propaganda (in particular the contrast between the bombastic external material and the explicitly racist, nationalist internal text). I feel like I really learned a lot from this book - CNN and Wikipedia weren't getting the job done - and it's surprisingly hard to put down. You don't really need to know anything about North Korea to get a lot out of this book, and in fact, I only have one complaint, and brace yourself, it's a little weird. My issue is that for some reason, this book has gigantic margins. I mean, look at this:

Hey, the margin should be almost half as wide as the main text, right? Right? Uh oh.

Occasionally there will be a footnote or postage-sized black and white photo in these big margins, but 90% of it is white space, and it kind of makes it feel like you're reading a very informative but terribly laid out webpage from the 90s.
That's really the only bad thing I can say, though; If you've ever had even a passing interest in North Korea, don't miss this.

Grade: A-