Thank you for this, Professor Snyder. I am looking forward to reading it. I also want to thank you for your recent lecture ‘The Perils of Slowness’. It was entirely apropos and gave me much food for thought, as did your testimony to Congress around China, Russia and Disinformation. One of the things I feel I can do is listen out for disinformation in conversations and do what I can to refute it and suggest its sources. Personal conversations open up the possibility of changes in people’s perceptions and awareness of the facts - ripples in the pond that hopefully have wider effects.
When I receive a new book, I tend not to set aside the one I'm reading to start reading the new one because if I did, I'd never be able to finish any book. The usual ritual is to look at the front and back of the title page, the table of contents, flip through it a bit, look at the maps, look through the bibliography, then find a place for it on the shelf. I'm not sure I'll have the self-discipline to do that when your new one arrives in September.
In my comment on your last Substack post, I reported that I'd just barely started Yaroslav Hrytsak's new book on Ukraine, and that I could tell it was going to be very different from any general book on Ukrainian history I'd read before, and it is. I do love it! The approach he takes to writing history is refreshing. His love of uncertainty and ambiguity very much reflects my own comfortableness with uncertainty and ambiguity, in history as well as life in general. There is so much that is good about this book: his monologues on the names of things, including trees and place-names; how maritime vocabulary--names for fishing, types and names of waterways, etc.--came to languages that had no use for such things; his speculations on Rus'; and so on.
When we face the possibility of so many threats to democracy here and abroad, it is important to give a demoralized contingent reason to hope. The road to freedom passes through the landscape of engagement, not apathy.
Ruth Windle
Thank you for this, Professor Snyder. I am looking forward to reading it. I also want to thank you for your recent lecture ‘The Perils of Slowness’. It was entirely apropos and gave me much food for thought, as did your testimony to Congress around China, Russia and Disinformation. One of the things I feel I can do is listen out for disinformation in conversations and do what I can to refute it and suggest its sources. Personal conversations open up the possibility of changes in people’s perceptions and awareness of the facts - ripples in the pond that hopefully have wider effects.
The Ukraine aid bill -- what a profound relief. I still don't get MMJ's about face, but we got there.
When I receive a new book, I tend not to set aside the one I'm reading to start reading the new one because if I did, I'd never be able to finish any book. The usual ritual is to look at the front and back of the title page, the table of contents, flip through it a bit, look at the maps, look through the bibliography, then find a place for it on the shelf. I'm not sure I'll have the self-discipline to do that when your new one arrives in September.
In my comment on your last Substack post, I reported that I'd just barely started Yaroslav Hrytsak's new book on Ukraine, and that I could tell it was going to be very different from any general book on Ukrainian history I'd read before, and it is. I do love it! The approach he takes to writing history is refreshing. His love of uncertainty and ambiguity very much reflects my own comfortableness with uncertainty and ambiguity, in history as well as life in general. There is so much that is good about this book: his monologues on the names of things, including trees and place-names; how maritime vocabulary--names for fishing, types and names of waterways, etc.--came to languages that had no use for such things; his speculations on Rus'; and so on.
Ordered the book a couple weeks ago; I’m very excited to read it!
When we face the possibility of so many threats to democracy here and abroad, it is important to give a demoralized contingent reason to hope. The road to freedom passes through the landscape of engagement, not apathy.
Something to look forward to!!!
Hans G Wesslau, Sweden
Pre-ordered. Eagerly awaiting.
I love the vignette titles. They read like a gallop through life, the universe and everything. Possibly written by Richard Feynman.