Originally published on March 4, 2020 (Episode 149)
Introduction
What is a people? What is a nation? Why do some peoples insist that nations must be synonymous with their particular group of people? And why are others content to be simply part of larger nations composed of many peoples? These are some of the questions that John Connelly addresses in his new book From Peoples into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe, published early this year.
Nor are they the only questions with which Connelly is preoccupied. Why exactly is the history of Eastern Europe over the last two centuries one of conflict? Was this inevitable? Were these peoples always antagonistic towards one another? The answers that he gives may surprise you.
About the Guest
John Connelly is the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of European History at the University of California, Berkeley. His past books include Captive University: The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945–1956 (University of North Carolina Press, 2000) and From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews (Harvard University Press, 2012).
Shownotes
John Connelly, From Peoples into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe (Princeton University Press)
Related: Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 (Yale, 2004)
The UC Berkeley Department of History page for John Connelly
Listen & Discuss
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