"Race to the Switf" focuses on two issues. One is on the historical and political context of south Korean economic development. The other is on the proximate determinates of growth, the actual economic policies used. The former is an excellent, if flawed, study, with lots of new information. The latter is superficial at best. If you want to know that in the early 1980s there was a drive to develop chemical indsutries or that there were state induced "distortions" in finance, then read this book. If you want something more in depth, look elsewhere.

Thus, my review will focus on the history and politics of ROK economic growth. Woo argues that Japanese imperialism had an unintended consequence of promoting ROK growth. This is one of the better versions of this argument that I've seen. Interestingly enough, Woo's husband Bruce Cumings is responsible for the best version of the opposing side on this issue. The most interesting part of this book is her exploration of the role the U.S. wanted for the ROK in the 1940s and 1950s. Woo has discovered in the national archives some interesting information. Still more concerned about Japan than Korea, the U.S. government wanted to return to at least a situation which simulated the colonial economic relations between Japan and Korea, for the former's advantage. This leads in to her brilliant revision of Rhee era economic policy. Rhee is generally blamed of running an incompetent, incoherent ISI policy. Woo shows that this policy was actually a competent attempt to thwart the U.S. plans, and doesn't make sense in any other light. There is a decent discussion of ROK politics, but with no focus on the central issue of class. On this, read anything on Korea by Paul Burkett and Martin Hart-Landsberg or the chapter on Asia in "The Political Economy of South Africa" by Fine and Rustomjee.