Entries in 08) Eastern European Issues (3)
The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999
by Timothy Snyder
Author Information: Timothy Snyder received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1997, and has held fellowships in Paris, Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, and at Harvard. He is the author of Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (Harvard University Press, 1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (Yale University Press, 2003); and Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (Yale University Press, 2005). He is also the co-editor of Wall Around the West: State Power and Immigration Controls in Europe and North America (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001). His current project is a family history of modern nationalism. (from his Yale Faculty Bio)
Book Description: Modern nationalism in northeastern Europe has often led to violence and then reconciliation between nations with bloody pasts. In this fascinating book, Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian nationhood over four centuries, discusses various atrocities (including the first account of the massive Ukrainian-Polish ethnic cleansings of the 1940s), and examines Poland's recent successful negotiations with its newly independent Eastern neighbors, as it has channeled national interest toward peace. (Powell's synopsis)
Recommendation: This book was recommended to me by frequent reader and commenter WRY: "This is one of my very favorite books on the formation of national identity and similar concepts. Man, what a hell of a book. It's all here, the question of Russian/Ukrainian/pan-slavic identity, the question of overlapping national identities, Ukrainian nationalism during WWII etc etc. plus all the other countries mentioned."
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Dan McMinn
in 01) History, 08) Eastern European Issues
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A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy
by Nathaniel Davis
Author Information: Nathaniel Davis is the Alexander and Adelaide Hixon Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Harvey Mudd College. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service for thirty-six years, in Moscow, as assistant secretary of state, as ambassador in three posts, and as Lyndon B. Johnson's senior advisor on Soviet and Eastern European affairs. (Perseus Books Bio)
Book Description: Drawing on newly opened Soviet archives, Davis (emeritus, humanities, Harvey Mudd College), who served the US as an expert on Soviet affairs, presents a secular history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century. This update of the 1995 edition includes recent challenges, e.g., Protestant proselytizers and internecine power plays, that have supplanted those from Communist rule.
Recommendation: This book was recommended to me by frequent Orange Ukraine reader and commenter WRY. Perseus books has an extensive list of other positive reviews of the book.
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Dan McMinn
in 01) History, 04) Religious, 08) Eastern European Issues
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The Natashas : Inside the New Global Sex Trade
by Victor Malarek
Author Information: An award-winning journalist with more than thirty years of experience in Canadian news. Works with CTV's current affairs show W-FIVE as it's senior reporter. Prior to joining W-FIVE, Malarek was the investigations editor for The Globe and Mail from 2000 to June 2003 and from 1990 to 2000 he was a host of CBC's investigative documentary show The Fifth Estate. In 2001, his investigation into the Toronto Police Union led to a fourth Michener Award and in 1997, he won a Gemini Award as Canada's Top Broadcast Journalist.
Book Description: Award-winning Canadian journalist Malarek reports on the most recent wave in the global sex trade, sparked by the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to the U.S. State Department, at least 800,000–900,000 impoverished young women, many of them orphans, from Eastern and Central Europe, are lured with promises of jobs as waitresses, nannies or maids in Western Europe or North America. Instead, they find themselves imprisoned in apartments, massage parlors or brothels in countries ranging from South Korea, Bosnia and Japan to Israel and Germany. With "ruthless efficiency," in the words of one European official, Russian and other organized crime syndicates control this human trade, which offers high profits with little risk of interference thanks to "complacency, complicity, and corruption" on the part of national governments and law enforcement.
One of the more horrific examples Malarek offers involves sex slaves in Bosnia who serviced NATO and UN peacekeepers after the war in 1995. Malarek recounts the affecting first-person stories of numerous victims. The author has excellent research skills and clearly makes his case with the hope of creating enough outrage to stop this traffic in women. However, his hyperbolic, tabloid style of writing is distracting. The facts are horrendous enough to speak for themselves. (Publishers Weekly review)
Recommendation: This book was recommended to me by frequent Orange Ukraine reader and commenter IIU.
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Dan McMinn
in 09) Culture and Society, 08) Eastern European Issues
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