A Laboratory of Transnational History
Ukraine and recent Ukrainian historiography
Edited by
Georgiy Kasianov, Institute of Ukrainian
History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Philipp Ther, European
University Institute, Florence, Italy
A first attempt to present an approach to Ukrainian
history which goes beyond the standard ‘national
narrative’ schemes, predominant in the majority
of post-Soviet countries after 1991, in the years of
implementing ‘nation-building projects’.
An unrivalled collection of essays by the finest scholars
in the field from Ukraine, Russia, USA, Germany, Austria
and Canada, superbly written to a high academic standard.
The various chapters are methodologically innovative
and thought-provoking.
The biggest Eastern European country has ancient roots
but also the birth pangs of a new autonomous state.
Its historiography is characterized by animated debates,
in which this book takes a definite stance. The history
of Ukraine is not written here as a linear, teleological
narrative of ethnic Ukrainians but as a multicultural,
multidimensional history of a diversity of cultures,
religious denominations, languages, ethical norms, and
historical experience. It is not presented as causal
explanation of ‘what has to have happened’
but rather as conjunctures and contingencies, disruptions,
and episodes of ‘lack of history.’
Contents
Introduction; I. National vs. Transnational
History Georgiy Kasianov, “Nationalized”
History: Past Continuous, Present Perfect, Future…
; Mark von Hagen, Revisiting the Histories
of Ukraine; Andreas Kappeler, From an Ethno-national
to a Multiethnic to a Transnational Ukrainian History;
Philipp Ther, The Transnational Paradigm of
Historiography and Its Potential for Ukrainian History;
II. Ukrainian History Rewritten Natalia
Yakovenko; Choice of Name versus Choice of Path
(The Names of Ukrainian Territory from the Late Sixteenth
to the Late Seventeenth Century); Oleksiy Tolochko,
Fellows and Travelers: Thinking about Ukrainian History
in the Early Nineteenth Century; Alexei Miller and
Oksana Ostapchuk, The Latin and Cyrillic Alphabets
in Ukrainian National Discourse and in the Language
Policy of Empires; John-Paul Himka, Victim
Cinema: Between Hitler and Stalin: Ukraine in World
War II—The Untold Story; Yaroslav Hrytsak,
Ukrainian Nationalism, 1991–2001: Myths and Misconceptions;
Roman Szporluk, Making of Modern Ukraine: The
Western Dimension; Notes on contributors; Index
"This book addresses Ukraine's national historical
project and the various problems inherent in an ethnocentric
approach. Using contributions by a team of international
experts on Ukraine, it offers new and insightful questions
about approaches to the topic, and the result is a volume
of the highest quality. Implicitly or overtly it challenges
the current national history, which it perceives as
being similar to Soviet versions in its one-sidedness
and subjection to an interventionist state. As the editors
point out in their introduction, Ukraine's history lends
itself particularly well to the transnational approach
since it was not a strong nation in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. As they claim, the accidental outcome
of this book is the provision of an alternative reader
of Ukrainian history, a welcome development for a new
nation with a troubled and complex past." - Slavic
Review
2009
318 pages
ISBN 978-963-9776-26-5 cloth $45.00 / €39.95 /
£35.00
ISBN 978-963-9776-43-2 paperback $27.95 / €24.95
/ £22.99
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