Serhii Plokhy is Mykhailo S. Hrushevs´kyi Professor of Ukrainian History in the Department of History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University.
The brevity of this work (seventy-five pages) should not blind the
reader to the fact that it is a complex and comprehensive summary
written for a knowledgeable audience. Plokhy is particularly adept
at referring the reader to the important problems and
contradictions that make up Ukrainian identity as it developed in
the Little Russian context… This study is a pleasure to read and
adds in important ways to our awareness of the sources of Cossack
and Ukrainian identity.
*The Russian Review*
Serhii Plokhy’s Tsars and Cossacks: A Study in Iconography explores
the complex interaction of the political, religious, and artistic
aspects of the iconographic types of the Pokrova, the protective
mantle of the Mother of God, as it evolved in the Ukrainian lands
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This cameo of a
book of just seventy-five pages offers the reader a rich view of a
society in transition… On the whole, Plokhy’s ideas are as original
as is his argument well-substantiated. Above all, one would
heartily welcome a work of such fine quality dedicated to the
history of a European people that even until now largely remains an
‘unexpected nation’ to the West.
*Slavic and East European Review*
Serhii Plokhy’s study of the ideology and rhetoric of icons of the
Pokrova (the Holy Protection of the Mother of God) presents the
reader with a most engaging marriage of meticulous historical
argument with the intrigue and suspense of the detective novel…
Tsars and Cossacks…adds richly to our understanding of the
political and cultural force fields that bore on Cossack Ukraine.
It also provides a welcome example of the wealth of historical
insight that can be gained from serious and detailed engagement
with cultural artifacts, and demonstrates that even the most
erudite historical writing can be appealing and accessible.
*Australian Slavonic and East European Studies*
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