ABSTRACT
Timothy Snyder, the author of Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, was born in 1969 in Dayton, Ohio. Snyder's political views have sometimes been considered controversial. Certain critics have accused his historical analysis of revealing a pro-Polish, pro-Ukrainian, and anti-Russian bias. Bloodlands argues that previous histories have kept Nazi and Soviet crimes unduly separate, focusing more on the Holocaust than on Stalin's crimes against humanity. They have emphasized Western Europe over Eastern Europe. Bloodlands is a groundbreaking work of transnational history. It encourages us to think outside traditional national frameworks, and to make new connections. Bloodlands also helps us to combat assumptions about the relative importance of Western Europe. The book helps to explain how one of the greatest disasters in history—the slaughter unleashed by World War II and the Holocaust—could have come to pass. Between them, Hitler and Stalin brought about a tragedy that shook the whole world.
