Ivan Franko and His Community

“On a fundamental level, outside the confines of Ukrainian studies, this monograph represents a balancing act between a portrayal of modernization theory and the faithful documentation of the extent to which individuals shape the world in accordance with their own needs and make their own rational choices… Hrytsak shows that individuals, like Franko, were not the only ones who changed history. Masses of nameless peasants also made a mark… 

This book will long endure not because it expounds ultimate truths but because it pushes us to rethink some of the most important questions of Eastern European history. It is a liminal work, inasmuch as it was written during the twilight of one paradigm in nationalism studies, just prior to the hatching of its successor; as such, it does not offer any clear-cut answers. Perhaps precisely for this reason it resonates as a rich and stimulating voice in the historical debate on its topic—a debate that is nowhere near completion.”

— Tomasz Hen-Konarski, East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies

“Yaroslav Hrytsak’s Ivan Franko and His Community (2019) is a pioneering volume that sits at the crossroads of three different genres. It is at once a biography of the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko, a microhistory of eastern Galicia from the 1850s to 1880s, and a case study of the origins and meanings of the Ukrainian national movement. … Hrytsak’s study is a significant reexamination of Franko’s life and legacy, one that will be a touchstone for scholars of Central and Eastern European literatures, modernism, nationalism, and socialism for years to come.”

—Nicholas Kupensky, H-Ukraine

“This is a study of one of the most intriguing Ukrainian activists of a century ago by one of the most important Ukrainian thinkers of today. Anyone who wishes to see demanding theories of nationalism tested in the practice of nuanced historical research should read this book. It is the culmination of a long discussion about the origins of nations that began in the 1980s and one of the most important books in its field.”

—Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History, Yale University

“Yaroslav Hrytsak's brilliant study of Ivan Franko illuminates the history of Ukraine, Galicia, and the late Habsburg monarchy. Franko emerges as a dynamic, complex figure whose life and work were deeply important for the history of politics and ideas. Hrytsak presents him with great skill and subtlety, and this book should be read by anyone interested in the intellectual history and comparative literature of Eastern Europe.”

—Larry Wolff, New York University, author of Inventing Eastern Europe and The Idea of Galicia

“Yaroslav Hrytsak is one of Ukraine's most prominent liberal intellectuals, an essayist and historian. Ivan Franko and His Community is not his first book on Franko, the writer and polymath, but it is certainly his most ambitious and best. The Ukrainian original was an award-winner in Ukraine. It is a conceptual book, very creative, and extremely readable in the excellent translation by Marta Daria Olynyk. Franko's strong personality jumps from the pages. Franko was forever falling in love and making hot-headed marriage proposals, but Hrytsak also tells us about his more unconventional relationships. Franko consciously fashioned his self-representation as a son of the people, a peasant boy borne aloft into higher social spheres by the sheer power of his talent. But Hrytsak tells us a rather different, and more interesting, story. I can recommend this book without reservation to lovers of biography, those curious about life in the peripheries of Habsburg Austria, and to readers who like to think.” 

—John-Paul Himka, Professor Emeritus of History and Classics, University of Alberta

“This book is a quintessential imperial biography of Ivan Franko, written by a historian who seems to know everything about turn-of-the century nationalizing empires, their challenges and opportunities. Covering just thirty years of Franko’s life, the book itself possesses many “imperial” qualities—from its length to its author’s all-embracing gaze, which is attentive to even the seemingly most marginal details of Franko’s early life. … In accessible and engaging prose, Hrytsak narrates the powerful yet subtle story of life as experimentation with gender, linguistic, national and cultural identities and loyalties. In the end, this is a fascinating and painstakingly researched story about nationalization as the reduction of past imperial ambiguities and complexity.” 

—Marina Mogilner, Edward and Marianna Thaden Chair in Russian and East European Intellectual History and Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois at Chicago

“The appearance of an English translation of Hrytsak’s biography of Ivan Franko is an event of singular importance…The limits of this review do not allow a presentation of the many arguments Hrytsak explores. Suffice it to say that his discussion is always erudite, extremely well-researched and well-rounded, as well as interesting and instructive…This volume will be of great interest to a wide variety of readers, not only to those specifically focused on Franko.”

— Maxim Tarnawsky, Slavic Review