Why read In the Midst of Civilized Europe?

Book cover of In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust

Book description

A riveting account of a forgotten holocaust: the slaughter of over one hundred thousand Ukrainian Jews in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century.

'Exhaustive, clearly written, deeply researched' - The Times

'A meticulous,…

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European history

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Why read it?

1 author picked In the Midst of Civilized Europe as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Stephen M. Norris

Author

As the Russian Empire collapsed and descended into civil war between 1918 and 1922, peasants, townspeople, and soldiers murdered over 100,000 Jewish residents in the Ukrainian lands. Jeffrey Veidlinger’s well-written, deeply researched account of this violence helped me understand what happens when empires disintegrate, and ordinary people are caught up in as well as participate in violence over contested territories.

For me, Veidlinger’s main achievement in this book is twofold: first, exploring the complex, horrific reasons why so many imperial peoples engaged in violence, and second, how the murders “explain how the next wave of anti-Jewish violence became possible.”

From Stephen's list on The best books for understanding Russia’s empire in Ukraine.