The Imjin War (1592–1598) was a grueling conflict that wreaked havoc on the towns and villages of the Korean Peninsula. The involvement of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean forces, not to mention the regional scope of the war, was the largest the world had seen, and the memory dominated East Asian memory until World War II. Despite massive regional realignments, Korea's Chosŏn Dynasty endured, but within its polity a new, national discourse began to emerge. Meant to inspire civilians to rise up against the Japanese army, this potent rhetoric conjured a unified Korea and intensified after the Manchu invasions of 1627 and 1636.

By documenting this phenomenon, JaHyun Kim Haboush offers a compelling counternarrative to Western historiography, which ties Korea's idea of nation to the imported ideologies of modern colonialism. She instead elevates the formative role of the conflicts that defined the second half of the Chosŏn Dynasty, which had transfigured the geopolitics of East Asia and introduced a national narrative key to Korea's survival. Re-creating the cultural and political passions that bound Chosŏn society together during this period, Haboush reclaims the root story of solidarity that helped Korea thrive well into the modern era.

"Haboush’s innovative research shows how Korea emerged as one of the first imagined communities, and one of the most enduring." - Foreign Affairs

"A welcome contribution to the study of Chosŏn Korea." - Journal of Asian Studies

"A provocative re-examination of an important period of East Asian history." - Journal of Early Modern History

"Required reading for anyone interested in the discourse of a nation more generally and in this particular war." - The Sixteenth Century Journal

"This provocative book reminds us of [Haboush’s] signal contributions to the history of early modern Korea." - Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"A welcome addition to recent scholarship.... Haboush's manuscript leaves readers with much to ponder about the Imjin War, literature, and nationhood in the premodern world.... Highly recommended." - Choice

"For her service, Haboush deserves our praise, and I am glad that her widower, her students, and her friends brought these unfinished notes to light. We have a significant contribution in this slim volume." - Monumenta Nipponica 72:1