Korea and Her Neighbors (Summarized Edition)

First published in 1898, Korea and Her Neighbors interweaves horseback travelogue with a clear-eyed political anatomy of late Joseon. Bird records clothing and housing, markets and magistracies, and the textures of village and court life while tracing the shocks of the Sino‑Japanese War, Queen Min's assassination, and King Gojong's refuge in the Russian legation. In supple Victorian prose, she shi...