The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is THE book for all those interested in a better understanding of Eastern Europe. It is a model of its kind, unique in scope, shows a mastery of multiple langauge sources, and is a scholarly yet readable account of the history of the largest European country of its day, the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealthy of 1569. Prof. Snyder's account is masterly, even-handed, and scrupulously fair with a clear and valuable thesis. It brings the complex strands of a neglected part of Europe into focus and explains while Poland and its Eastern neighbors were able to reach a peaceful accommodation after the downfall of the soviet Union. Tragically, the Balkans did not enjoy the longterm fencebuilding that kept this corner of the world at peace. Snyder's account of the Polish-Ukrainian conflicts during World War II is groundbreaking and fills a vital gap in this story. Not since "God's Playground" has the story been told so well. Wonderful book. Buy it.

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Modern nationalism in northeastern Europe has often led to violence and then reconciliation between nations with bloody pasts. In this fascinating book, Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian nationhood over four centuries, discusses various atrocities (including the first account of the massive Ukrainian-Polish ethnic cleansings of the 1940s), and examines Poland's recent successful negotiations with its newly independent Eastern neighbors, as it has channeled national interest toward peace.

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Galicia: A Multicultured land Review

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(More customer reviews)Having embarked on a quest for a better understanding of my Ukrainian/Polish heritage, I found this collection to be a valuable resource. I have always been interested in my lineage beyond my nuclear family. It is a fact that on my Ukrainian side my Grandparents were Greek catholic, and on the Polish side Roman Catholic. That in itself is amazing to me and I am delighted to refer to myself and others as a "naturalized Galician"
Mssrs Hann and Magocsi have compiled an excellant work for those interested in the history of Galicia and its varied peoples. I would highly recommend for the researcher and non-researcher alike.

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Habsburg Galicia was an area in central Europe covering territory presently occupied by Poland and Ukraine that was distinctive for its multi-ethnic character. With the unraveling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following the First World War, a new political map of Europe emerged, one based on the principle of the nation-state. The very concept of the nation-state, however, was problematic in culturally pluralistic regions like Galicia.
The essays in this volume examine Galicia beyond the traditional paradigm of national history, in an effort to better understand the region as a place where different ethnic communities - Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Austro-Germans - lived in peaceful co-existence. As expansion of the European Union proceeds, as migration becomes increasingly prevalent, and as the very concept of the nation-state is called into question, a look back to see how cultural diversity was managed in a pre-nationalist age is of more than antiquarian interest. The contributors to this multidisciplinary volume pursue a wide range of approaches to shed fresh light on this unique region.

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A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland Review

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(More customer reviews)A Biography of No Place is not really a biography of the borderland region in Ukraine, but rather concerns the creation and evolution of ethnic and national identities by competing actors inside and outside the region. As Brown shows, the idea of nationality was often imposed on the region, where both nationality and ethnicity had previously been non-existent or fluid.
While the book takes some detours, for me it ultimately succeeds in condemning the 20th century as the century when the modern nation state successfully imposed it's will over all of Europe - leaving millions dead as a result. In addition to many other lessons, the book really points out the pitfalls in viewing historical conflicts as one ethnicity vs. another. Reading the book left also me wondering if modern economic development in any way correlated with the existence of clear national and ethnic typologies or vice-versa?
One of my criticisms of the book include the author often going into vague historical psycho-analysis without providing concrete sufficient evidence to bolster her claims. The chapter entitled "Ghosts in the Bathhouse" is also ultimately unsatisfying as the author seems to suggest that the ghosts, faeries, and rusalki of the region might actually be real. Some readers might dismiss a good portion of this chapter as post-modern equivocation. The author also never really clearly explains the history the Ukrainian Catholic Church or defines "Ukrainian Catholics."
Overall though, the book is engaging book for anyone interested in the history of Ukraine, Soviet history, or more generally the creation of the modern nation state and ethnicity in Europe.

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This is a biography of a borderland between Russia and Poland, a region where, in 1925, people identified as Poles, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, and Russians lived side by side. Over the next three decades, this mosaic of cultures was modernized and homogenized out of existence by the ruling might of the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany, and finally, Polish and Ukrainian nationalism. By the 1950s, this "no place" emerged as a Ukrainian heartland, and the fertile mix of peoples that defined the region was destroyed.

Brown's study is grounded in the life of the village and shtetl, in the personalities and small histories of everyday life in this area. In impressive detail, she documents how these regimes, bureaucratically and then violently, separated, named, and regimented this intricate community into distinct ethnic groups.

Drawing on recently opened archives, ethnography, and oral interviews that were unavailable a decade ago, A Biography of No Place reveals Stalinist and Nazi history from the perspective of the remote borderlands, thus bringing the periphery to the center of history.

We are given, in short, an intimate portrait of the ethnic purification that has marked all of Europe, as well as a glimpse at the margins of twentieth-century "progress."

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