Resumen:
Part I. Jettisoning caricatures: understanding history -- Beyond the cliches -- National identity -- Part II. The rise and fall of Kim Il Sungism -- Colonialism occupation and the rise of Kim Il Sung -- War-fighting as state-building -- "Socialism in our own style" -- Sisyphus as economic model -- Social stratification in the workers' state -- Famine and the end of Kim Il Sungism -- Part III. Marketisation and military rule -- Marketisation from below -- Military rule from above -- The marketisation of well-being -- The marketisation of the social structure -- Going nuclear -- Strategic paralysis -- North Koreans as agents of change.