James Palais was the professor of Korean history at the University of Washington for 33 years (1968-2001). During his long career at the University of Washington, Prof. Palais became one of the most important founders of the Korean studies field in the United States, both through his own publications, and through the training of graduate students who are now teaching Korean history at most of the important centers of Korean Studies in the United States.
He wrote books on Korea's history and human rights, mostly notably the 1,230-page "Confucian Statecraft and Korean institutions : Yu Hyongwon and the late Choson Dynasty" : a work covering 500 years of Korean history. The book won the John Whitney Hall Book Prize as the best book on Japan or Korea in 1998 by the Association of Asian Studies. He was extremely rigorous, uncompromising and insisting on a depth of research grounded in original sources, according to Clark Sorensen, the associate professor in the University of Washington.
Prof. Palais has built his own personal collection at his residence in Seattle as well as in his office. The collection size is significant as it is nearly 10,000 items mainly with books and periodicals. Apart from the books and periodicals, Palais' collection includes teaching notes, working papers, manuscripts and computer files containing his writings and notes, which could be valuable research sources for students and scholars studying in the field.
Palais Collection Review
The entire book and serial collection has been cataloged into the UW Libraries Catalog. For more information, please refer to Palais Collection Information Page.
Collection Lists
Monographs Master List, Korean Titles, Western Titles, Japanese Titles, Chinese Titles
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Last modified: Friday January 09, 2009 (hkyi)
