The Making of Modern Ukraine, Lecture 4
The Making of Modern Ukraine, Lecture 4
Before Europe
One of the features of my class on Ukraine is that I dwelled for quite a while in theory of history and then ancient history. One of the reasons for this is that I wanted to get listeners out from under any myth of eternity: that things are as they must be because they have “always” been such. Another is that the early history if what are now Ukrainian lands is deeply fascinating. Themes that might be familiar in a “western civilization” course, such as ancient Greece, early Christianity, or Vikings, figure here in new forms or with greater prominence. In this lecture I work through the emergence of Europe from the ancient world, but with the Slavs and Ukraine at the center.
You can find the video for the lecture here and the podcast here or here.
The reading for this lecture was Plokhy, Gates of Europe, chapter 2.
Terms:
Athens, Athena
Poseidon
Achilles
Herodotus
Scythians
Byzantium
St. Sophia
Jarisleif and Yaroslav
Valdemar and Volodymyr
німці, Німеччина (Германия)
слово, slovo
слов'ян, slov'ian
Slavs, al-Saqlabi, Sklaven, Slaves
Avars, Khazars
Perun
Cyril and Methodius
Moravia
Rostislav
Franks
NB: I made a mistake in this lecture in the little excursus on words for “five.” I said that it was an ancient slavic root when I meant an ancient indo-European root. You’ll see what I mean.
Working my way through these lectures for the second time. The months in between have been filled with learning more through other TS lectures, as well as those by other great minds like Serhii Plokhy. I've gone back to basics, re-learning global geography—changed as it has since learning it pre Cold War. Expanding into study and greater understanding of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Russian-Chechen Wars. SO interesting. All of it. Thank you again, Professor Snyder!
Why can't I get the ""read" version? Podcasts don't work for me because of hearing probs.