The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson

This is the first book in a three book trilogy. It is very long. There are multiple chapters on what would have a sentence in our school history books. In this book, Benedict Arnold is still on the side of the rebels. How would the American Revolution turned out if the British would have won? The book paints the rebels as fighting for strongly held, if not noble beliefs. They were not as well equipped as the British, but they had the advantage of being local at a time of difficult transport. There remained loyalists who still sided with the Brits. The British attempted to grant slaves freedom to fight on their side. This would later be copied by Lincoln when he faced a rebellion. The rebels made overtures to Canada, however, they were somewhat conflicted. The book ends with some early disasters at the start fo the revolution.

The Blood in Winter: England on the Brink of Civil War, 1642

The Blood in Winter: England on the Brink of Civil War, 1642 by Jonathan Healey

This book provides a detailed history of a specific time in British history. There were religious conflicts as the reformation has resulted in many types of protestantism. People have obtained more rights and question the privileges of the king. These are both great sources of conflict. Colonization and empire are also underway. Some Puritans have already set up colonies in New England. The conditions outside were not great. Streets were filled with manure and diseases remain. I had trouble getting involved with the story.

Cruel Is the Light

Cruel Is the Light by Sophie Clark

This book is like K-Pop Demon Hunters without the Kpop. There is a girl and guy that fill in love. The boy ends up being a demon, while the girl hunts them. They are part of some futuristic empire headquarted in the Vatican. It is fairly typical mediocre romantasy. 

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam

This long book brings the Korean War to life. The author writes a riveting account of the war that was fought on multiple different levels. Korea was a key location in the ideological battle between western capitalism and eastern Communism. The United States had little understanding of Korea and had reneged on previous promises. On the communist side, the conflicts conflicts between Russia and China created issues for support. On the battlefield, Korea was in the realm of Douglas MacArthur. However, he spent much of his time in Japan and had very little understanding of the Koreans or the conditions on the ground. The book portrays him as a cocky old man who thinks he is above the law. He had great victories in the past and won't listen to his subordinates. However, he will gladly take credit for their plans after they succeed. His arrogance is a big cause of the prolongation of the Korean war. The victory at Incheon probably helped delay his eventual firing. The other sycophants under him denied intelligence and resulted in significant loses. Only with better leadership did the western UN forces gain ground.

Mao's communist forces were able to take advantage of MacArthur's arrogance to achieve some early victories after they entered the war. However, he also fell to arrogance.

In the end, the long war left Korea back in the state it was where the allies divided it after the end of World War II. On the geopolitical front, the US and China ended up needlessly poisoning their relationship. Attempts to contain communism probably helped more to maintain it.

The author is very opinionated, with sources to back his opinions. The Korean War had plenty of heroes and villains. What did it accomplish?

From Rails to Trails: The Making of America's Active Transportation Network

From Rails to Trails: The Making of America's Active Transportation Network by Peter Harnik

The rails to trails program had initially picked up some steam in the midwest. Railroad right of ways were "railbanked" to prevent development and allow for trails. Seattle's Burke-Gilman trail was one of the first trails built in the heart of a city. New York City's High Line and Chicago's 606 were popular elevated urban rail to trail conversions. Successful rail to trail conversions require advocacy, planning and government support. There are often challenges to overcome. Sometimes nearby property owners are afraid of potential crime or decreased property values. It may take some effort to convince them that trails almost always increase property values. Other times they expect to be able to use the trails for their own purpose. Railbanking "banks" the right of way for future rail use, prohibiting development, but allowing trails. There may also be challenges with bridges and passings. There are often regulations that require removing the bridges when a path is abandoned - however these are some of the beneficial bits of infrastructure on trails. Work may be needed to retain or rebuild these bridges. 

Rails with trails can also work well. With these the biggest challenge is the railroads fear of liability. Even when they are relieved of liability they have trouble overcoming this fear. For trail users, a trail next to an active train line remains much safer than a road filled with cars. 

Rail to trail conversions attract various users. They are typically flat and direct and have few road crossings. This makes them ideal for bike commuters. Runners, snowmobile users and horse riders also are heavy users of trails. Some traverse long distances and are great for bikepacking expeditions. Others are short urban lines. Some are open at all times while others are more restricted. Sometimes a trail changes character as it passes through different regions. We are getting more trails available.

The author has been quite involved in the rails to trails movement and covers many of the challenges and successes in the book. There seems to be strong support for trails, but there still remain opponents and financial constraints.

The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%

The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99% by Conor Niland

Growing up, the author's parents pushed him to focus on tennis. He noticed other parents were not so focussed on a single thing, yet he persevered. He attended sports prep schools and eventually received a tennis scholarship to attend Cal. After college, he struggled just on the outskirts of the "big leagues". He worked his ranking up just beyond 200. He was able to play in qualifying sections of the major tournaments. He was the top ranked Irish tennis player and qualified in a couple big tournaments. He was never a well known tennis player, yet he would continue to work hard. The matter-of-fact tone of his journey separates this from other sports memoirs. He acknowledges he was pushed externally in his youth, yet had the drive of his own. He was able to take advantage of the opportunities, such as receiving a literature degree from UC Berkeley. With all that work, he got a few chances to play in front of big crowds, but mostly stumbled away in anonymity. The book provides insight on how most participants experience professional tennis.

Linked

Linked by Gordon Korman

After a swastika appears in a rural middle school, the school adopts special training classes. After more swastikas appear, the school attracts the notice of a popular vlogger. The talk of anti-semitism also is the opening for a popular boy (Link) to learn from his mother that grandma was an orphan in Europe because her family was killed in the holocaust. The family only found this Jewish ancestry recently. The boys talks to the one Jewish girl at school (who is there because her parents are working on a nearby dinosaur dig). After that discussion, he decides to work towards a Bar Mitzvah at a synagogue in a nearby town. He also attracts other students to a student council meeting where they decide to make a paper chain with a link representing every Jew that died in the holocaust. The project ends up attracting worldwide attention due to the vlogger who has now set up shop in town. They do complete the chain and eventually caught a girl who had done all but the first swastika. However, the vlogger then has one more bombshell. Link, the boy undergoing a bar mitzvah, was the one that painted the first swastika. He is suspended. He is very repentant and makes peace with the school and Jewish community and has all attend his ceremony. 

While Link is well-developed and undergoes realistic growth, other characters are caricatured. The swastika girl suddenly gets a bit of history only to be an unrepentant racist who happens to leave town after getting suspended. (She obviously had spent a lot of effort planning all of these - why is she such a throwaway.) The vlogger was needlessly demonized. Individual students were playing towards type (art club, jock, student government, etc.) rather than being more fully developed. Did the author intend to paint a color character with a black and white supporting cast?

The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story

The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story by Aaron Bobrow-Strain

The communities along the Mexico-USA border are caught in the crosshairs of immigration policy created far away. The borders were once quite porous, with families spanning both sides. People would freely cross the borders. There were no quotas on Mexican immigrants, and various iterations of guest worker programs. However, changes to increase "fairness" of immigration policy opened up immigration from other countries, but ended up reducing Mexican quotas. Then the country clamped down on the border. Soon organized crime became involved in getting people (and drugs) illegally across the border. This lead to more border security. The US has now spent a huge amount on securing the border, yet there are still huge numbers of illegal immigrants. There are also many industries that rely on the immigrants. 

This book focuses on one of those immigrants, Aida Hernandez. She was born in Mexico and had family on both sides of the border. There was a history of domestic violence in her family. (Undocumented immigrants are reluctant to report violence for fear of being reported - especially if he perpetrator is a citizen.) She had a boyfriend she met at school in Douglas, Arizona. As a teenager, she had a son in the US, however, she still liked to party and went with friends to Mexico. She got caught on the border trying to return and was stuck in Mexico. Since she grew up mostly in the US, she did not have a Mexican ID and had difficulty getting a job. She worked a bar job that would get her some money. However, after work, somebody tried to rape her and ended up stabbing her. She was treated in a Mexican hospital, then rushed to a US hospital under a special treatment program. She was given special time to stay in the US to get better. She overstayed it and then was caught by immigration after trying to steal a lego set at Walmart. She was then in detention for about a year before finally getting resident status under an "abused spouse" provision. She was not an "upstanding citizen". However, she does have some positive attributes.

The book is not sure what it want to be. At times it is a history of the Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Mexico. At other times it is a Mexican immigration history. While the "title track" is the history of Aida Hernandez and her family. It also has a digression to the life of a woman that Aida would meet in the detention center and with whom she would enter and leave a relationship. The book could be more concisely written to bring out its main points.

The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare

The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare by Daniel Swift

Shakespeare's plays are well known. His life is also explored in various forms in fact and fiction. This book takes a different approach of exploring the culture of theater at the time. Shakespeare was put one of the characters in this drama. Theaters had become a popular form of entertainment at the time. The goals and rights of performers and playwrights were being established. The capitalistic financing scheme was just starting to take hold. People borrowed from each other and didn't see huge value in their work. Traveling troupes had their own separate economics. The plague seemed to bring much crashing down - especially with the unknown length of time. The book is loaded with interesting detail, though it went on a bit too long for me to maintain interest.

Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed

Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed by Eric H. Cline

I've enjoyed other books by the author, but this one did not pique my interest. The Amarna letters were tablets that had fairly extensive historical records of an ancient civilization. They were discovered a century ago. Alas, many were destroyed as the treasure collectors tried to maximize value. The book covers the work of the people that found and translated the tablets even more than the contents. It is an interesting story of "how archeology works", but it would be much more appreciated by a niche audience.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

Nations succeed when they adopt inclusive government. They fail when the leaders adopt extractive policies. The rest of this book provides examples to prove this thesis and poke holes at other theories of prosperity. Leaders can enrich themselves by extracting all they can for themselves. (One example had Mugabe even winning the lottery in Zimbabwe.) The extraction comes at the expense of general prosperity of a country. Strong institutions can help prevent rulers from extracting too much for themselves. However, they must be strong enough to prevent leaders from changing them even when a leader has popular support. Spanish colonization was built on extraction. Colonies that are built on extraction (such as Spanish or slave colonies) often continue this mindset well after the colonizers have left. Inclusive governments are often democracies, but all democracies are not fully inclusive. There are plenty of democratically elected rules that seek to extract value for themselves. (Is the United States moving more towards that direction?) China has been able to pivot to prosperity by opening up enough while still maintaining communist control. Many poor countries receive huge amounts of aid, yet fail to achieve prosperity. Much of the aid is consumed in overhead and waste, with much of the remaining aid used to enrich the ruling party (either directly or indirectly). Moving to inclusion is the key to maintaining prosperity, but it is hard to do.

Learn Korean: 3000 essential words and phrases

Learn Korean: 3000 essential words and phrases by Collins Dictionaries

This audiobook is exactly as described. It went through the 3000 words and phrases, giving the English and then saying the Korean twice with space to repeat. The English words are all British English. I felt I was learning British almost as much as Korean. For modern terms like the "boot" of a car, the Korean word was the American word ("trunk") with a Korean accent. Many of the "older" words (such as months) had some clear Chinese influence. The audiobook does have some logical groups, but doesn't have any progression or context. It may be useful for refreshing vocabulary, but does not really sufficient for learning.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3 by Beth Brower

This third volume rebounded back to the heights of the first volume. The main "event" is the annual performance of Julius Caesar in the town. It is a big event, but shrouded in secrecy. There are a number of clues that must be obtained in order to procure tickets. However, in true British fashion it is best to pretend you are not interested in the tickets as you proceed. Emma's deadbeat cousin is very into the process, and even gets up early in the morning to attend church to get a clue. They have crazy adventures in the clue search which culminates in the deadbeat eating his ticket. Emma also attends some social events organized by her controlling Aunt, with plenty of bizarre social encounters. There is plenty of great humor here.

Books in 2025

For 2025, I wanted to fill in the gaps to read books from every year since 1776. Thus there are a lot of books from random years, especially in the 1800s. I also wanted to cover at least 1000 books. A lot of these were picture books read to children. Since I am now giving star rankings for all books, the "good books" sections are not super relevant anymore. The 9 and 10 star rankings are probably a better indicator. Most of the top tags have to do with childrens books also.

(As a side note, I had to add backoff to the blogger script because I was hitting the blogger API limit with so many pages of results for the year.)

Total Books: 1168

Great Books (0)

Good Books (3)

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?: . . . and Other Questions from the Astronomers' In-box at the Vatican Observatory

Good Audiobooks (1)

The Name Of This Book Is Secret

Rankings

6stars: 370
7stars: 330
5stars: 233
8stars: 130
4stars: 72
3stars: 31
9stars: 21
2stars: 11
10stars: 4
stars: 1
1stars: 1
8 stars: 1

By month read

January: 40
February: 167
March: 212
April: 145
May: 128
June: 144
July: 77
August: 62
September: 70
October: 47
November: 44
December: 32

Books by year written

1598: 1
1610: 1
1638: 1
1657: 1
1666: 1
1686: 1
1697: 2
1722: 1
1727: 1
1759: 1
1777: 1
1778: 1
1779: 1
1780: 1
1783: 1
1784: 1
1785: 1
1786: 1
1787: 1
1788: 1
1789: 2
1790: 1
1792: 1
1793: 2
1794: 2
1795: 1
1796: 1
1797: 2
1806: 1
1807: 1
1809: 1
1811: 1
1813: 2
1814: 1
1815: 1
1817: 1
1818: 2
1819: 1
1820: 2
1821: 1
1822: 1
1823: 1
1824: 2
1825: 1
1826: 1
1827: 1
1828: 1
1829: 1
1831: 1
1832: 1
1833: 1
1834: 1
1836: 1
1837: 1
1838: 1
1839: 1
1842: 1
1844: 2
1845: 1
1847: 3
1848: 3
1849: 2
1850: 1
1853: 1
1854: 1
1855: 1
1856: 1
1857: 1
1858: 1
1859: 1
1860: 1
1862: 1
1863: 1
1868: 1
1869: 1
1873: 3
1876: 1
1878: 2
1881: 1
1882: 1
1883: 2
1884: 1
1886: 1
1887: 1
1888: 1
1889: 1
1891: 1
1892: 2
1893: 1
1894: 1
1897: 1
1899: 1
1902: 1
1903: 2
1905: 1
1906: 1
1908: 2
1911: 1
1913: 1
1914: 2
1915: 3
1916: 1
1917: 1
1919: 2
1921: 1
1922: 1
1924: 1
1925: 1
1929: 1
1930: 2
1932: 1
1933: 1
1935: 2
1936: 1
1937: 2
1939: 1
1940: 2
1941: 5
1942: 6
1943: 2
1944: 2
1945: 3
1946: 3
1947: 3
1948: 1
1949: 1
1950: 1
1951: 1
1952: 2
1954: 1
1955: 2
1956: 4
1957: 6
1958: 7
1959: 3
1960: 10
1961: 8
1962: 5
1963: 5
1964: 6
1965: 2
1966: 5
1967: 4
1968: 3
1969: 2
1970: 5
1971: 6
1972: 8
1973: 5
1974: 7
1975: 6
1976: 6
1977: 5
1978: 9
1979: 3
1980: 2
1981: 8
1982: 10
1983: 7
1984: 7
1985: 14
1986: 10
1987: 4
1988: 8
1989: 9
1990: 7
1991: 6
1992: 17
1993: 10
1994: 13
1995: 13
1996: 22
1997: 19
1998: 18
1999: 16
2000: 16
2001: 15
2002: 20
2003: 27
2004: 30
2005: 28
2006: 25
2007: 25
2008: 31
2009: 30
2010: 31
2011: 24
2012: 25
2013: 23
2014: 26
2015: 16
2016: 20
2017: 17
2018: 34
2019: 30
2020: 36
2021: 53
2022: 23
2023: 30
2024: 45
2025: 52

Stats on years written

mean: 1984
median: 2003
mode: 2021

Most popular tags (other than year, book and rating)

paper books: 691
childrens books: 657
picture books: 479
library: 231
owned: 169
ebooks: 97
easy readers: 83
board books: 54
history: 52
fantasy: 50
translated literature: 49
historical fiction: 45
animals: 44
science fiction: 34
autobiography: 32
Audiobooks: 489
Books: 1168 (includes audiobooks also available in book form)

Accomplice to the Villain

Accomplice to the Villain: Assistant and the Villain, Book 3 by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

The Villain makes a passing comment about the girl being his accomplice. That gives us a title. The books has a good deal of action, humor and romance. However, there are so many twists, turns and subplots that it is easy to get lost. The families of the villain are all interrelated and both hate and love each other. The end serves to just confuse the plot points. The frog prince seems to be more frog, but then seems to magically appear as a person at the end. The villain shouldn't have been the villain, but the girl should. Their relationship has stepped up a level, so does it really matter what they should have been? There are various conflicts, possible traitors and more along with a lot of one-liners. I still have not bought in to the necessity of what is going on. 

Inhabit the Poem: Last Essays

Inhabit the Poem: Last Essays by Helen Vendler

Poetry has a much greater "density" and requires more time and focus to read. The author of this book has taken it to an even greater extreme.  Each chapter typically starts with a poem. Then she starts to analyze the poem. Then the analysis goes off on tangents, bringing in other poems or the life of the poet or cultural events that may have a slight relationship to the poem. I got quite lost with some. My favorite one was Epitaph on a Hare by Cowper. The poem is a bit bizarre, but the analysis actually sheds light on the poem and the importance the poet had on the animal. Other poems are just as likely to talk about the poet as other poets that have referenced the poem. The author provided a simple definition of important poems: "poems that future poets continue to reference". That might be the most useful insight in the book.

A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja

A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja by Bruce K. Grant

I checked this out intending to learn Korean writing. It does cover the writing systems. However, the Korean characters are only in the inside cover. The rest of the book covers Chinese characters. From what I have heard, these Chinese characters are only rarely used in Korea today. I'd rather find a book that focuses on Korean writing.

Spoken World: Korean- one hour intro course

Spoken World: Korean- one hour intro course by Living Language

I had trouble finding any link to this specific one. Even the image of the file from the library shows the 6 disc "complete" course. This one, however, is a 1 hour "short intro". It goes through some quick phrases with chances to repeat. However, it moves at a fairly fast pace, making it hard to really grasp. It does go over a number of key phrases, so maybe a few time going through it would help. It also spends time pitching the "full course" if you really want to learn Korean. At least it is honest in what it provides.

In-flight Korean

In-Flight Korean: Learn Before You Land by Living Language

This is a quick 1 hour course designed to give you some "basics" before going to Korea. It jumps right into some useful phrases. I listened at 1x speed, but still had trouble keeping up. There is a printed section that goes with it that does not seem to be included. I got a little lost when it started jumping to numbers in Chinese - but that didn't quite sound right. Only later was it clear that these are two different flavors of numbers in Korean that are used for different purposes.

Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS by BTS and Myeongseok Kang, translated by Anton Hur, Slin Jung and Clare Richards

BTS is one of the biggest musical acts in the world. They are also Korean and part of the K-Pop idol system, yet they exerted much greater creative control over their music. Their experience is different from those of western musicians. There are a number of subtleties that come out in this story and make it very different from western musical hagiographies.  There is a strong attachment to fans that is different than what is seen in western rock bands. There is also a greater respect for authority and cultural norms. They are breaking with Kpop idol norms in creating their own hip-hop music with personal lyrics. Yet they are still very much part of the system. They are dedicated to working hard to perform the best for their fans. They can move the boundaries without completely tearing them down. Performance is an important part of what they do. I find it takes extra work to relate to people of very different cultures, however, it is often worth it.

After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations

After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations by Eric H. Cline

Many great civilizations seemed to fall away a few millennia ago. We see gaps where writing disappeared and provided little historical record. There have been some postulates for how and why the failed. It may not have been obvious to the people living at the time. There may have been some changes resulting in certain things no longer needing to be recorded. There may have been different rulers. People may have depended too much on climatic conditions and struggled when they changed. Some of the changes may just be fictions caused by our lack of understanding. The book explores civilizations and their resilience through difficult times. This can be an example for us as we struggle with things such as pandemics and climate change.  

I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki: Further Conversations with My Psychiatrist

I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki: Further Conversations with My Psychiatrist by Baek Sehee, translated Anton Hur

The author struggled with suicidal thoughts and self harm and saw a psychiatrist to talk about the problems. She wanted to quit her job. She felt bad when she succeeded. She did harm herself once and came close to checking herself into a hospital. She also has thoughts about diet and working out. She likes working out, but struggles to determine whether it is for her or just to support men. She does have a partner and a job, so there must also be a more positive side to her life that she is not expressing in the book. She spends time exploring areas both within and out of her control. The book feels more powerful coming from her cultural point of view. She does not have the "I deserve it all" brashness of Americans. She has worked hard and has humility. Her timidity masks deep internal struggles. However, she is also willing to be vulnerable in open about them. (Alas, she died at a young age not long after writing this book.)

Apprentice to the Villain

Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant and the Villain, 2) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

This is a "middle book" in the villian series. There seems to be a lot going on, but it is unclear why it is going on. The villain and the girl seem to like each other. Family members come out to influence the plot. They are trying to find the girl's mother with the goal of understanding things. However, they seem to run into other family members instead. I was a little bit lost with this plot. It seemed to be a vehicle for humor rather than a story.

Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History

Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History by Bruce Cumings Ph.D.

This is a long history of Korea that was written a couple decades ago. At time of the writing, the author didn't know of any Korean movie that was released in the US. Since then a Korean movie has won the best picture Oscar. Korean drama and music have also exploded on the world stage. The government has become more stable. When a president attempted to implement martial law, he was instead impeached. The South Korea's economy has continued to grow and is now vastly larger than North Korea.

Korea has been one defined area with one population for much of its history. It has had significant interactions with Japan and China. It previously used China's characters, but later adopted its own alphabet. Japan controlled Korea during much of the first half of the twentieth century. After World War 2, America artificially divided the country in two. The Korean War was a civil war between two parties that looked to different sources for influence (USSR vs US). Both sides committed plenty of atrocities. The North was probably in better condition to succeed. However, it was also more heavily bombed. After the end of fighting, both sides were lead by dictators. The North seemed to be industrializing faster and was centrally commanded. The south was relying more heavily on US largess. In the south there were coups, assassinations and other not so great leadership transitions. With heavy government support, big companies grew bigger and grew to compete on the global market.

The author has experience in both North and South Korea. The history primarily focuses on "modern" Korean, though the book was originally written in 1997 and revised in 2005. The coverage of the Koreas is balanced, though the book is quite long.

Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech

Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech by Geoffrey Cain

Samsung is not one company, but a group of affiliated companies that span multiple industries. They all trace their history to the single founder and remain controlled by the same family. It is the largest of the Korean chaebols and is "too big to fail." Leaders of Samsung have been convicted of crimes, such as bribery, but are often pardoned "in the interest of the country". Organizations such as a pension fund will vote out of their best interests to support Samsung. (In one case, they took a big loss in order to help support a complicated succession plan.) The company has been around for less than a century, being founded shortly before World War II. It has been involved in more mundane activities such as groceries. With support of Korean government it grew and expanded to other fields. It saw opportunities in electronics and microchips and took the plunge. Initially the products were low quality imitations, but gradually it grew to improve quality and marketing. It has a huge share of the market for certain chips and cell phones.

Despite its position, Samsung remains firmly controlled by family. (Though people have been sued for comparing the leader of Samsung to the leader of North Korea.) When things go wrong, the tendency is to deflect blame. The company quickly launched a recall, but focussed on blaming a certain supplier. When replacement ones failed, they were left with a big problem that they did not handle well.

Samsung has also had trouble with acquisitions. They tend to implement their top down control even if that causes problems with the acquired company. The Samsung culture is very hard working. However, it does have difficulty responding to external criticism. Samsung is tries to stay out of media which it cannot fully control.