Britain and the United States: A Korean Intellectual’s View on Two Countries in the Early 1930s

Abstract

Soontag Lee, a Marxist economist of Yonhee Higher College in Seoul traveled round the world during his sabbatical year of 1933. After returning home, he published a travel book titled Essays on the Recent World Travel (1934), which is now considered one of the initiating works of world-travel literature in Korea. During his long journey, he stayed especially in England for about 50 days, and in the Unites State for 4 months. With visiting several places of Britain and the Unites States, he observed various aspects of the two countries during the Great Depression, and compared each other. Since the 1920s Britain had experienced the deepest depression in the world. What was the reason? According to Lee, the decline stemmed from the fact that the British people did not achieve the balance between tradition and innovation because of their attachment to their traditional life and industry. This attachment made the British economy lose its competitive power in the world market. On the other hand, the American economy was full of vitality even in the depression, showing differentiation from Britain. After observing an assembly line system in the motor industry, and Chicago World’s Fair, Lee predicted that the future world would be initiated by the United States. The vitality and dynamism originated from liberty and competition of American capitalism. Soontag Lee compared the decline of the British economy with the rise of the American economy, and emphasized the movement of the economic power from Britain to the United States. But he also focused on continuity and similarity between the two countries in the aspects of society and culture. He foresaw that Anglo-American culture would initiate the world in the future. It was because America developed out of New England which British immigrants had established, and the two countries held cultural traditions in common.