Kyiv, Ukraine : the city of domes and demons from the collapse of socialism to the mass uprising of 2013-2014 /

This is a valuable and timely book. An American urban geographer of Ukrainian descent whose academic output has focused primarily on Japan, Cybriwsky (geography and urban studies, Temple) spent the 2013-2014 academic year at the National Univ. of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy on a Fulbright exchange. His proficiency in Ukrainian and Russian provided him unique access to the raucous events he witnessed. His reflections are dispensed in sketches of two to ten pages, loosely organized into 12 chapters. Given his background, his sympathy for the Western-leaning, Ukrainian-speaking elements in the ongoing civil strife should surprise no one, but he never sinks to rancor, except when cataloguing the excesses of former President Viktor Yanukovych and his inner circle. Cybriwsky's urbanist expertise feeds his most useful insights on how Kyiv's architecture and topography influenced the mood and activity of the Maidan movement. Moreover, in contrast to the already tired contrast between the Catholic, Ukrainian-speaking West versus the Orthodox, Russian-speaking East, Cybriwsky sees the fundamental conflict in Kyiv as a competition for post-socialist space in which wealth, however amassed, trumps ethnic affiliation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Paul E. Heineman, University of Maryland University College