Scan barcode
A review by sam12213
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy
fast-paced
2.0
Me oh me oh my what a fucking slog!
Hate to say it but this just wasn't interesting until the last 100 pages or so. Before that, it is an interminable jumble of random names and events that seem barely connected. Plokhy has a tendency to simply take nation states and polities as actors by themselves, presenting them with agency in his narrative, which is the exact opposite of the kinds of histories I like to read.
That is a personal thing, but even then it is bewildering to me how this book does not cite anything - especially as it is written quite academically. Seems like Plokhy is just riding his clout here of being a very eminent historian, but it was still very puzzling.
And yeah overall the worst part of this is that it fundamentally doesn't tell you anything. It's really too brief to serve as an in-depth history, and the moments in which the book does attempt to make a point are quickly undercut because of the incessant need to move on to the next wacky event or character. For the record: this book deals with the entire post-WWII Soviet history of Ukraine in a chapter-and-a-half. That's mad! (Although it is also why the book gets better as it goes along, and the chronological scope narrows and becomes more pointedly focused on the contemporary Ukrainian situation at the time this was published)
Anyway, read this if you know jack shit about Ukraine and love arbitrary collections of names!!
Hate to say it but this just wasn't interesting until the last 100 pages or so. Before that, it is an interminable jumble of random names and events that seem barely connected. Plokhy has a tendency to simply take nation states and polities as actors by themselves, presenting them with agency in his narrative, which is the exact opposite of the kinds of histories I like to read.
That is a personal thing, but even then it is bewildering to me how this book does not cite anything - especially as it is written quite academically. Seems like Plokhy is just riding his clout here of being a very eminent historian, but it was still very puzzling.
And yeah overall the worst part of this is that it fundamentally doesn't tell you anything. It's really too brief to serve as an in-depth history, and the moments in which the book does attempt to make a point are quickly undercut because of the incessant need to move on to the next wacky event or character. For the record: this book deals with the entire post-WWII Soviet history of Ukraine in a chapter-and-a-half. That's mad! (Although it is also why the book gets better as it goes along, and the chronological scope narrows and becomes more pointedly focused on the contemporary Ukrainian situation at the time this was published)
Anyway, read this if you know jack shit about Ukraine and love arbitrary collections of names!!