the reputational capital and legitimacy that illiberal regimes . . . so dearly crave (p. 152).

This need for prestige represents tactical pressure. In contrast, exposure to the liberal values that are embodied in the Olympicsfair competition, rules, best efforts, and rewarding merit and performancethat aim to surmount all racial, religious and political barriers challenge the regime with a more insidious ideational pressure (p. 120). In sum, although sports purists detest the dynamic, sport is not just a spectacle; it is a powerful political agent that generates internal and external pressures for change that are difcult to ignore (p. 156). Clear and organized, this useful book lls a gap, with Cha providing abundant examples of the political ramications of sport in Asia. If this work has one aw, it would be its need to connect to the sociology of sport, or sociology more generally, such as Pierre Bourdieus The Forms of Capital (1986). Also, John Kanes 2001 The Politics of Moral Capital illustrates the paradoxical relationship between moral authority and political capital that is germane to Chas model of sport as both tool and end in itself. Kevin D. Kim Honolulu, Hawaii
North Korea, Caught in Time: Images of War and Reconstruction, by Chris zs Szalontai). Reading, U.K.: Garnet PublishSpringer (with an essay by Bala ing, 2010. xxviii, 148 pages, illustrations, map, index. $49.95 cloth.

zs Szalontai, the author of the background essay to this slim but As Bala very engaging volume, notes, little has been written on how average North Koreans lived through the perilous period of the Korean War (19501953) and the years of intense reconstruction that followed its devastation. This has largely to do with that countrys mania for secretiveness. Until the unprecedentedthough still highly stiltedaccess to North Korea afforded by the information revolution of latter days, it is perhaps the period of 19481956, before Kim Il Sung had solidied his hold on power and sequestered his country within its own reality, that offered the outside observer the best chance of understanding the lives of average North Koreans. Even for this earlier period, however, studies are rare. Though in no way claiming to be such a study, Chris Springers volume of black-and-white photos (culled from two unlikely sources, the Hungarian National Museum and the Museum History Institute and Museum of that countrys Ministry of Defense) does its bit to address this shortage and offers a valuable, fascinating, but also frustrating glimpse into the lives of the North Korean people during those watershed years.
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North Korea, Caught in Time comprises two primary elementsa zs Szalontai (The Four Horsemen of the twenty-page essay by Bala Apocalypse, the Forgotten Side of a Not-so-forgotten War) followed by the photographs themselves, divided broadly into ve categories: War, Reconstruction, Politics, Agriculture Industry, and Culture Education. This is supplemented by a map, index, and postscript on further sources. zs Szalontai (currently a professor at Mongolian International Bala University) offers what can only be called a gem of an essay that provides the readerand viewera succinct but eloquent overview of the conditions average North Koreans faced just before, during, and in the wake of the Korean War (i.e., the Great Fatherland Liberation War). As the title reveals, Szalontai frames the popular North Korean experience in terms of the Biblical four horsemenpurveyors of famine, conquest/persecution, war, and death. This certainly works on some levels (combined North Korean civilian/military casualties as a result of the war may have numbered as high as two million), but clashes in tone with the more hopeful thematic organization of the collection itself. Nevertheless, the author makes a noble effort to paint a picture of the life of average North Koreans during and following the conict based on what few sources and secondary studies are available. However, rather than a portrait of the average North Korean, the essay may more accurately be described as an overview of the conditions and events that most affected the average North Korean between approximately 1950 and 1956. As is the case with the photographs themselves, the average North Korean remains a shadowy gure. Since so much of the introductory essay is based on Hungarian sourcesa fact that contributes to rather than diminishes its valuethis reader felt it would have been more meaningful had these important witnesses been engaged more fully. Who were these Hungarian ofcials, what were their backgrounds, what brought them to North Korea, and what was their fate? Such questions were not addressed, understandably perhaps, in light of the books primary topic. Yet considering the archival source of the photographs, there is another story that could have been more fully related here. Finally, the essay, engaging as it is, rarely refers to the photographs themselves, resulting in a slight disconnect. Save for a few references to photos likely taken by the Hungarian diplomatic staff, one could read this opening essay separately and hardly realize it constituted an introduction to a collection of photographs. Any realization of Szalontais hope that his essay might inspire further research by providing some glimpses into wartime living conditions in North Korea (p. xi) will likely have to wait until the Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean
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archives nally give up their dead, but the reader should not neglect this very articulate and informative opening narrative. This point aside, it is the photos themselves that occupy the central stage. Regarding the photographs, manythough certainly not allare seeing publication for the rst time, a fact alone which justies their inclusion in a book. One very large caveat, and one fully addressed by Chris Springer, is the fact that a great many of these images likely have their origins with Chinas Xinhua News Agency or North Koreas Central News Agencythe latter being the primary media mouthpiece of the North Korean Workers Party. At least a third of the photos included are labeled to indicate such provenance. As to how they made their way to Hungary, Springer notes how such photographs were published in the media throughout the communist bloc to engender sympathy for North Korea by displaying in photographic terms the devastation wreaked upon North Korea, the indomitability of its people, and the resilience of the socialist system . . . (p. 4). This means that a great many of the photos in North Korea, Caught in Time depict scenes either posed, recreated, or downright doctored. Considering this specious aspect, the author-editors expressed hope that such a book of photographs might show the North Korean peoples humanity (p. 10) seems a misplaced one. Rather, the nal word would seem to be the authors earlier assessment, that whatever the veracity of the images themselves, the authenticity of the photos as propaganda artifacts is not in dispute (p. 8). On this point, the annotations to the photos captions, providing them with a contextual background, is a very helpfulindeed necessaryaspect to the book. Such annotations could have been expounded upon. Only a handful of the volumes more than 150 photographs were taken by unofcial photographersmost likely members of the Hungarian diplomatic staff. Not surprisingly, it is these images that best capture and hold the viewers attention. These photographs do succeed in depicting the unltered humanity of average North Koreans. Standing out in particular are images no. 52, an unscripted snapshot of ve female members of the North Korean army as they walk through a village in winter, one apparently enjoying the feeling of the sun on her face in what one imagines is a quiet respite from the hardships of military life, and no. 72, of a young uniformed North Korean woman caught looking shyly into the camera lens amidst a frenzied street scene in a ramshackle Pyongyang. Most photos, however, depict those scenes of wartime struggle (civilian and military), factory and farm production, political gatherings, and classroom education familiar enough to anyone who has gazed upon the output of Party public relations. Yet these too hold interest. One of their
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greatest values is that they depict a North Korea not yet come under the full control of Kim Il Sung. These may prove important evidence in the study of pre-1956 North Korean politics. For instance, one photo depicts Kim Il Sung signing the 1953 armistice with Kim Tu-bong in the background. Following his purge, Kim Tu-bong would be airbrushed out of all later versions. Many others provide ample documentary evidence of a North Korea where Lenin and Stalin still had pride of place. It does bear noting that the large majority of the photographs were taken in Pyongyang, further suggesting their ofcial provenance and detracting from the books claim to represent the North Korean people as a whole. Chris Springer is to be commended for bringing these largely unknown photographs to publication. As ultimately a book of photographs, reaction to the collection will largely be personal and subjective. The ofcial nature of most of these photographs detracts from their power to move. However, the book makes an importantand frequently forgotten point: although for the United Nations forces (and South Koreans) the Korean conict after 1951 devolved into a slugfest along what became the demilitarized zone, for North Koreans the 195153 phase of the war was a far different experience. For North Koreans, 1951 to 1953 were years that saw major North Korean cities decimated by bombing raids that killed untold thousands. Considering this, even ofcial photos retain some emotive power. Images of North Koreans living out of crude dugout homes or collecting bricks from a bombed-out Pyongyang or Wonsan still carry weight. Considering contemporary images of North Korean poverty and dearth, one reaction may be wonderat how much the human spirit will suffer yet go on suffering. Dostoevsky was right when he dened a human being as a creature that can grow accustomed to anything. Daniel C. Kane Vancouver, British Columbia

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