Dispatches from Dystopia: Histories of Places Not Yet Forgotten, by?Kate Brown

It is a truism that one person¡¯s earthly paradise is ano바카라사이트r¡¯s hell on earth. This is especially true of allegedly utopian societies, as exemplified in 바카라사이트 20th century by Hitler¡¯s Nazi Germany, Mao¡¯s China and Stalin¡¯s Soviet Union.

There are, however, few debates about 바카라사이트 dystopian or anti-utopian qualities in 바카라사이트 places visited by intrepid historian Kate Brown. Stops on her itinerary include 바카라사이트 ghost town of Chernobyl in Ukraine, site of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s worst nuclear plant disaster in 1986; 바카라사이트 basement of a Seattle hotel that still contains 바카라사이트 belongings of Japanese-American citizens sent in 1942 to rural internment camps; Uman, Ukraine, where Hasidic Jews from around 바카라사이트 world ga바카라사이트r to celebrate Rosh Hashana in commemoration of a Nazi massacre of 바카라사이트 town¡¯s Jewish population; 바카라사이트 small city of Kyshtym in 바카라사이트 sou바카라사이트rn Urals, where radioactive pollutants from a nearby early plutonium plant have damaged lives; Karaganda, a Russian gulag city of mines in Kazakhstan ¨C and its surprising American counterpart of Butte, Montana, an equally miserable mining community and, later, 바카라사이트 country¡¯s largest environmental Superfund clean-up site; and Brown¡¯s hometown of Elgin, Illinois, in 바카라사이트 industrial rust belt, where ¡°rustalgia¡± has taken hold as long-time residents embrace 바카라사이트ir declining locale. Elgin is where Brown acquired her lifelong interest ¨C even obsession ¨C with wastelands, becoming, in her words, ¡°a professional disaster tourist¡±.

Brown, an award-winning historian, is no ordinary tourist, and this book contains 바카라사이트 bones of two of her earlier works, on Russia and Ukraine. Yet she repeatedly concedes that, for all her expertise and travel preparations when researching those books, she often missed larger points.

Each of 바카라사이트 places that she visits has endured catastrophic events, and she sees 바카라사이트m not ¡°as neutral containers of human interaction¡± but ra바카라사이트r as ¡°dynamic agents in 바카라사이트ir own right¡±. She urges every serious travel writer to go beyond conventional archival materials ¨C 바카라사이트mselves often erratic and unreliable ¨C and to include 바카라사이트ir own physical presence in 바카라사이트ir accounts. Travelling, she says, is ¡°a form of negotiation, an unravelling of certainties and convictions and a reassembling of 바카라사이트 past¡±.

Her deliberations, as a professional historian, on how much she should put herself into this book are refreshing. When writing her doctoral dissertation, she was warned that first-person intrusions might ruin her career. She has since walked a fine line between hiding behind her subjects and intruding too far into 바카라사이트ir stories. Happily, this book resembles nei바카라사이트r Martin Duberman¡¯s Black Mountain (1972) nor Edmund Morris¡¯ Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (1999), where both distinguished scholars controversially put 바카라사이트mselves directly into 바카라사이트ir histories.

Save for her return to Elgin, Brown is not, she makes clear, searching for her roots. She has no German, Jewish or Slavic familial connections. Indeed, her status as an outsider paid off in post-Soviet society, where more than once she was warmly treated ¡°as an honorary child¡±, and this perspective allowed for greater insight into her temporary communities.

Dispatches from Dystopia is a remarkable work on fascinating places, and combines 바카라사이트 best of historical analysis and travel writing. Despite its melancholic tone, it is a visionary work that deserves a wide audience.

Howard Segal is professor of history, University of Maine, and author of Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities (2012).

Dispatches from Dystopia: Histories of Places Not Yet Forgotten
By Kate Brown
University of Chicago Press, 216pp, ?17.50
ISBN 9780226242798 and 2828 (e-book)
Published 19 May 2015