This is really a book of two parts. The first third is an overview of the events surrounding Chun Doo Hwan's accession to the leadership of South Korea in 1979. (I knew nothing of Korean history, and found this overview relatively easy to follow if rather dry in tone.) The remaining two thirds of the text are essentially reproductions of primary documents. It's here that the book is most uneven - some of the primary texts are the most interesting things in the book (interviews and investigative reports, for instance). But very large chunks of it are legal documents, and with the best will in the world reading law is a painfully soporific experience.