Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I love to see Americans write European history. Not so much for the reason that we can't do it well as much for the reason that too often we refuse to do it well. In an age of American history scholarship dominated by revisionism, politically correct relativism, and otherwise trendy arcane trash, this brilliant analysis is like fine wine after years of Budweiser. Hamm chooses a national/ethnic context in which to tell the story of how these various peoples transformed Kiev from a forgotten backwater to the cosmopolitan capital of Ukraine. All of this took place in the matter of about 100 years--a blip on the radar screen of Kievan history. But what a century! Poles, Jews, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, the Decembrists, art, education, music, literature, commerce, war, pogroms, conflagration, disease, and revolution. It's all here, told in the perfect combination of lucidity and attention to detail as to both fascinate and instruct. Isn't every great work of history supposed to do that? I know I've come across something special when I feel like I've actually lived through a particular history after reading it. We all become residents of Kiev here. One thing that prospective readers should note: Hamm likes numbers. The book is full of statistics, but it never completely relies on them. The author always uses numbers to illustrate his point, but he never tells the story itself with numbers. Though the topic may seem to be a bit esoteric, Hamm's thesis suggests that we should consider understanding urban history as a history of people rather than of institutions and infrastructure. Wonderful stuff, even if you have no interest in Ukraine.
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