Many modern historiographical concepts, such as official, idealistic or altruistic (F. R. Dulles, J. Foster, J. Moore, T. Millard), geopolitical or international-political (A. Mahan, P. Reinsch), political realism (G. Morgenthau, T. Roosevelt, L. J. Halle, R. Osgood, W. J. Smith). Lafeber), the concept of vital interests of the United States (A. Baveridge), originate in the early period of the Far Eastern policy of the United States. The interest of American historians in US policy in Korea in the late XIX-early XX centuries is due to the fact that then the Korean Peninsula became one of its objects. The United States entered into a treaty with Korea in 1882, having no special interests there, except for the need to provide for the lives and property of shipwrecked sailors and open Korean ports to American trade. The treaty was signed with the assistance of the Qing Empire, which tried to use the United States as a counterweight to Japan in Korea. The development of American historiography in the period under review took place in two main directions. Proponents of the widespread idealistic trend insisted on the exclusively positive role of the United States in the lives of the peoples of East Asia, including Korea, who were closed from the outside world. The United States was assigned the role of protecting the semi-independent kingdom from encroachments primarily by China and Russia. The idealists were opposed by representatives of the school of political realism, who developed the ideology of the US colonial policy in the Far East. This review attempts to analyze the most significant works of American historians and identify the main trends in the development of the historiography of US policy in Korea in the late XIX-early XX centuries, interpreting it based on existing concepts of US foreign policy. DOCUMENTARY SOURCES Modern researchers of American politics in Korea have access to a wide database of documentary sources, statistical materials, and literature tha ... Read more