ABSTRACT
The Industrial Revolution that first occurred in England (1750–1850) implied such a drastic break with the past that historian David Landes was led to say that it “has been like in effect to Eve’s tasting of the fruit of the tree of knowledge: the world has never been the same” (1969: 12). In the latter part of the twentieth century, another industrial revolution took place in South Korea. It has been hailed as a “miracle on the Han River,” and serves as a model to be emulated by those underdeveloped countries aspiring to modernize their economies. What impact has it had on Korean society? How far has an industrialized Korea moved away from its Confucian past? How similar is industrialized South Korea to the West? What discontinuities and continuities are there between traditional and modern Korea?
