Most Americans have little knowledge of Ukraine's history--despite the fact that the United States is massively involved in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Now choose one of these two excellent books!
Choose to read one of these two books for our June 3rd discussion:
Anna Reid, Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine (2023), revised and updated edition.
"Ukraine" means "borderland," and Ukraine has been both a borderland and a battlefield for more than seven centuries, from the Mongol invasion of 1240 to the devastating wars of the 20th century--and now, of course, the terrible Russian invasion which started in 2022. This new edition covers the first year of the current war, but above all puts the new situation into the context of Ukraine's long and bloody history. "A beautifully written evocation of Ukraine's brutal past and its shaky efforts to construct a better future."— Financial Times Note: This excellent book is nonetheless hard to find in public libraries!
Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History (2023). Plokhy is the director of Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute and this is his much-praised take on the current war. It is a more scholarly treatment of the war, compared to the more journalistic approach taken by Borderland. There are 24 copies of this book in our consortium: order your copy just like you would any book on our shelves in Evanston. If you are lucky, EPL's copy will be on the shelf and you can just grab it--but don't count on it!
Our discussion of the history of Ukraine and of the current conflict will draw on what each of us have read, regardless which book. We last did this with two excellent books on the doomed Narváez expedition to Florida in the 1520s/30s and the discussion was very productive.
Following the Zoom meeting of our group on April 1, we will be returning this time to in-person discussion in the Community Meeting Room, Main Library!
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