Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. The New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of Europe and Nuclear Folly, Plokhy is an award-winning author of numerous books. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.
"[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."--Wall Street Journal
"[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 19th century intellectuals who believed fervently in
a Ukrainian cultural identity but were fatally divided as to how
that cultural identity could evolve into national
entity."--Washington Times
"A masterly surveyor of Ukrainian history."--Independent (UK)
"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 rapacious, destabilizing
force of Russia."--Kirkus Reviews
"An assured and authoritative survey that spans ancient Greek times
to the present day."--Financial Times
"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."--Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University
"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."--Publishers Weekly
"Readers can find no better place to turn than Plokhy's new
book.... Plokhy navigates the subject with grace and
aplomb."--Foreign Affairs
"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."--Library
Journal
"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."--Michael Ignatieff, Harvard Kennedy School of
Government
"[An] admirable new history.... In his elegant and careful
exposition of Ukraine's past, Mr. Plokhy has also provided some
signposts to the future."--Economist
"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."--Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of
the Red Tsar
"Elegantly written."--New York Review of Books
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