by Andrew Evans

Book Description: Probably the best travel guide to Ukraine. A good overview. I've generally heard better reviews of this guide than of the Lonely Planet Guide.

Recommendation: This book has been recommended to me by a number of people in the last couple years, but my thanks go to R. Smith for reminding me to add it to the Orange Ukraine library. The book must be good because Powell's felt the need to give it four synopses.

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by Anna Reid

Author Information: Anna Reid holds a master’s degree in Russian history and reform economics from London University’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She was the Kiev correspondent for the Economist and the Daily Telegraph from 1993 to 1995. Her first book, Borderland: A Journey through the History of the Ukraine, was published to wide acclaim in 1997. Ms. Reid lives in London. (Walker Books Bio)

Book Description: In this beautifully written and penetrating book, Anna Reid combines research and her own experiences to chart Ukraine's tragic past. Talking to peasants and politicians, rabbis and racketeers, dissidents and paramilitaries, survivors of Stalin's famine and of Nazi labor camps, she reveals the layers of myth and propaganda that wrap this divided land. From the Polish churches of Lviv to the coal mines of the Russian-speaking Donbass, from the Galician shtetlech to the Tatar shanty-towns of Crimea, Reid explores Ukraine's struggle to build itself a national identity, an identity that faces up to a bloody past and embraces all the peoples within its borders. The paperback edition is fully updated to include recent events in Ukraine, including the presidential election in October of 1999. (Powell's review)

Dan's Moderate Recommendation: I must say it isn't top of my list, but it's a good option in a slim (258 page) history that can provide the basics to interested outsiders. It's history for mortal folks without the time to read through Subtelny's comprehensive monster tome.

Granted, many people have much more sparkly reviews of the book, including Orange Ukraine reader Florence Tonk: "It's funny, beautifully written and mixes personal experiences with seriously researched history, travel stories and political analysis. I only wish she'd update it to cover the events of the past few years."

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by Andrew Wilson

Author Information: Andrew Wilson is senior lecturer in Russian and Ukrainian studies at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University of London. He is also the author of Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation and Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World.

Book Description: The remarkable popular protest in Kiev and across Ukraine following the cooked presidential election of November 2004 has transformed the politics of eastern Europe. Andrew Wilson witnessed the events firsthand and here looks behind the headlines to ascertain what really happened and how it will affect the future of the region.
It is a dramatic story: an outgoing president implicated via secret tape-recordings in corruption and murder; a shadowy world of political cheats and manipulators; the massive covert involvement of Putin’s Russia; the poisoning of the opposition challenger; and finally the mass protest of half a million Ukrainians that forced a second poll and the victory of Viktor Yushchenko.

As well as giving an account of the election and its aftermath, the book examines the broader implications of the Orange Revolution and of Russia’s serious miscalculation of its level of influence. It explores the likely chain reaction in Moldova, Belarus, and the nervous autocracies of the Caucasus, and points to a historical transformation of the geopolitics of Eurasia. (Amazon review)

Recommendation: This book was recommended to me by LEvko of Foreign Notes. If you're going to read one book on the Orange Revolution (and you want just the facts, not personal memoir), this is probably the one.

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Yale Press not-at-all-biased review
Article List on FindArticles.com
Amazon