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THE GATES OF EUROPE

Serhii Plokhy

A History of Ukraine (Revised)

In The Gates of Europe, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy presents the authoritative history of the Ukraine and its people from the time of Herodotus to the present.

Situated between Europe, Russia, and Asia, Ukraine was shaped by the empires that have used it as a strategic gateway between East and West - from the Romans and Ottomans to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, all have left a lasting mark on the landscape, making modern Ukraine an amalgam of competing cultures. The mixing of sedentary and nomadic peoples, Christianity, and Islam produced the class of ferocious warriors known as the Cossacks, for example, while the encounter between the Catholic and Orthodox churches bridged Western and Eastern Christianity.

The revised edition includes new material that brings this definitive history up to the present, from the election of Volodymyr Zelensky to the role of Ukraine in Trump's impeachment. As Ukraine once again finds itself at the center of global attention, Plokhy brings its history to vivid life as he connects the nation's past with its present and future.

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. He is the award-winning author of many books on the history of Russia and Eastern Europe, including Chernobyl (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction) and The Last Empire (winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize). He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.

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Book Published 2021-05-21 by Basic Books

Comments

Clear and elegant. An indispensable guide to the tragic history of a great European nation.

A sympathetic survey of the history of Ukraine along the East-West divide, from ancient divisions to present turmoil. A straightforward, useful work that looks frankly at Ukraine's ongoing 'price of freedom' against the rapa- cious, destabilizing force of Russia.

Serhii Plokhy offers a short yet comprehensive history of Ukraine that contextualizes Mr. Putin's current policies as aggression against the wishes of the Ukrainian people, as well as the order established at the end of the Cold War. A pleasure to read, The Gates of Europe will take those familiar with the Moscow narrative on a mind expanding tour of Ukraine's past.

USA Today includes Serhii Plokhy's THE GATES OF EUROPE in their "Want to understand what led to Russia invading Ukraine? Read these 8 books" roundup: Plokhy, a professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, offers this definitive history of his homeland, showing how the modern-day Ukrainian conflict is part of an ongoing struggle with Russia to preserve its sovereignty. Situated between Europe, Russia and the Middle East, Ukraine is uniquely positioned to be shaped and exploited by nations using it as a strategic gateway, Plokhy writes. Read more...

Serhii Plokhy's major distinction from his predecessors is that he has interpreted the history of Ukraine applying the modern concept of national identity, which is still not widely familiar in post-Soviet republics.

Electric Literature includes Serhii Plokhy's THE GATES OF EUROPE in their "A Literary Guide to Understanding Ukraine, Past and Present" roundup. Read more...

Plokhy is at his best when describing the Ukrainian Cossacks, free men of what remained of the untamed steppe.

A masterly surveyor of Ukrainian history, Plokhy does not belabor the many horrors he describes; he doesn't have to, grim facts speak for themselves.

The New York Times includes Serhii Plokhy's THE GATES OF EUROPE in their "6 Books to Read for Context on Ukraine" roundup Read more...

A fast-moving history, full of prompts and nuggets. A strong rebuttal of the arrogant assumptions of the Putin court that Ukraine, though intrinsically part of the greater Russian nation, is culturally inferior, weaker, and compromised.

Serhii Plokhy has produced a perfect new history of Ukraine for these troubled times - authoritative and innovative, but always clear and accessible, and a delight to read.

Complex and nuanced, refreshingly revisionist, and lucid, this is a compelling and outstanding short history of the blood-soaked land that has so often been the battlefield and breadbasket of Europe. The Gates of Europe com- bines scholarly authority with narrative flair - essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Russia and Ukraine today.

Plokhy's publication is not solely an academic work as it seeks to tackle some of the questions that are currently being raised in the geopolitical debate, including whether Ukraine belongs to the Russian world.

A comprehensive, unbiased history.

A concise, highly readable history of Ukraine. A lively narrative peopled with a colorful cast of Norse and Mongol marauders, free-booting Cossacks, kings, conquerors, and dictators, and conflicted nineteenth-century intellec- tuals who believed fervently in a Ukrainian cultural identity but were fatally divided as to how that cultural identity could evolve into national entity.

For a comprehensive, engaging, and up-to-date history of Ukraine one could do no better than Serhii Plokhy's aptly titled The Gates of Europe. Plokhy's authoritative study will be of great value to scholars, students, policy-makers, and the informed public alike in making sense of the contemporary Ukrainian imbroglio.

THE GATES OF EUROPE is recommended as a book to help better understand Ukraine in an article published by the Nation. Read more...

Serhii Plokhy was interviewed in The New Yorker on "Vladimir Putin's Revisionist History of Russia and Ukraine." THE GATES OF EUROPE is mentioned. Read more...

Very readable, providing a compelling story of a country destined as a crossroad for peoples, armies, cultures, and civilizations.

The Gates of Europe details the enduring conflict for territory and identity between Russia and Ukraine, [and] deconstructs more than 2,000 years of history and how it came to this.

[An] admirable new history. Belief in Ukraine's history of tolerance and legality, rooted in European Christian civilization, keeps hope alive. In his elegant and careful exposition of Ukraine's past, Mr. Plokhy has also provided some signposts to the future.

The Gates of Europe take us back to the time of Herodotus to tell the tangled story of [Ukraine's] long struggle to win control over its own destiny.

Plokhy's careful, engaging history is a series of stories about a spectral na- tion, one that has appeared and disappeared down the ages. If sense ever prevails, Plokhy's fine book should find its way to Vladimir Putin's desk, if only to show the imperialist that Ukraine itself is far from done, and will not be extinguished.

Finally: a compelling and concise history of a country leading the news but which too many know embarrassingly little about. There are no more excuses for ignorance.

Injecting appropriate nuance and complexity into a single-volume overview of 2,000 years of Ukrainian history is no small task, but Plokhy approaches this charge with dexterity and skill. Plokhy's work serves as a welcome introduction to Ukraine's ethnic and national history.

A vigorous polemic in the classical sense of that word - a sharply focused argument in support of a debatable point of view.

An assured and authoritative survey that spans ancient Greek times to the present day.

Buy this book. Give copies to your children and grandchildren. Buy copies for your friends. Make sure they read it.

This is present-minded history at its most urgent. Anyone wanting to understand why Russia and the West confront each other over the future of Ukraine will want to read Serhii Plokhy's reasoned, measured, yet passionate, account of Ukraine's historic role at the gates of Europe.

The timeframe and subjects covered here are extraordinary. Students, academics, and readers with a general knowledge of Ukraine will appreciate. Alternatively, chapters can be read independently, allowing those with a strong interest in the subject to focus on a specific era of Ukraine's history.

[An] exemplary account of Europe's least-known large country. One of the joys of reading the The Gates of Europe is that what might seem a dense account of distant events involving unfamiliar places and people is leavened by aphorism and anecdote.

Literary Hub includes Anna Reid's BORDERLAND, Serhii Plokhy's THE GATES OF EUROPE and CHERNOBYL, and Timothy Snyder's BLOODLANDS in their "Understanding the Ukraine Crisis: A Comprehensive Reading List" roundup. Read more...

No one can understand today's sad, tangled confrontation over Ukraine without some knowledge of the complex, crosscutting influences that have shaped Eastern Europe over the millennia. For that history, readers can find no better place to turn than Plokhy's new book. Plokhy navigates the subject with grace and aplomb.

Elegantly written.