Please recommend some books where I can learn about Korean culture and history!

I don't know much about Korea, but I've recently become interested in the culture related to beauty standards in Korea. I'm not particularly interested in K-pop or dramas, but I want to learn more about Korean beauty procedures and how they originated. I also want to learn about influential figures in Korean popular culture and politics. I would like to know the basic history and politics, that is, Korea's 'fundamentals.' I started learning Korean a few months ago, but I'm still far from understanding content in Korean. If there are any good resources or books that I haven't thought of, I would appreciate your recommendations. As I've been learning by skipping between various topics, I feel like the information isn't connecting well.