The Reconstruction of Nations

Timothy Snyder's early work — a history of the Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian nations as products of deliberate intellectual and political construction in the 20th century.

Nations as constructs: the four nations were not ancient ethnic continuities but deliberate modern constructions — made through historical writing, political organization, and the catastrophes of WWII. The interwar period: how each nation defined itself in contrast to its neighbors. The Holocaust and WWII as nation-remaking events. An early demonstration of Snyder's ability to write simultaneously about multiple peoples and their overlapping histories.