THE KWANGJU UPRISING: Eyewitness Accounts of Korea's Tiananmen, edited by Henry Scott-Stokes and Lee Jai Eui. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 268 pp. $18.95 (paper).

"Covering the Kwangju uprising -- and writing of it in the aftermath," a Korean observer writes, "I was stuck for words. A reporter is supposed to be able to write. I couldn't get down on paper, for myself even, what I had seen. Some events, some actions, resist words. They beggar description." For Korean and foreign correspondents alike, the days of the Kwangju uprising were filled with both action and horrible suspense.

The uprising, which took place in May 1980, marked a turning point in Korean history -- toward freedom and away from tyranny. According to the editors of this book, it can be viewed as the origin of an idealism that lives on in Korea to this day.

The book recreates the unfolding events of Kwangju through eyewitness reports by leading Western correspondents, as well as Korean participants and observers.