Ukraine has been at the epicentre of world-shaping events for hundreds of years, from the rise of the east-central European empires in the 18th century to the revolutions and wars of the 20th. Today, it again finds itself at the heart of global affairs.
And yet, remarkably, histories of Ukraine in the English language have been rare. Until the 2000s, there was only really one: Orest Subtelny's pioneering (1988). By the eve of the Russian invasion of February 2022 – after more than 30 years of Ukrainian independence – there were only three more: Andrew Wilson's (2000), Serhy Yekelchyk's (2007), and Serhii Plokhy's (2015). To this select bunch, we can now – the only one on the list written originally in Ukrainian and by a historian working in Ukraine.
