The People From Nowhere

The title comes from a famous Rusyn/American, Andy Warhol (originally Warhola), who often said he was from Nowhere. The place he was from is the Carpathian Mountains, and his people are the Rusyns who are the subject of this book. Their homeland stretches through southeast Poland, northeast Slovakia, western Ukraine, eastern Hungary, and northern Romania. Through various voluntary and forced movements, large communities also exist in Serbia, Czech Republic, USA, Canada, and Australia.

Dr. Magocsi is Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto and the leading expert on the Rusyn people. He has written many books both scholarly and popular about them. I have found this to be the most scholarly of his popular books with pictures on every page and crammed with the history of this people and their land. It was published in Uzhhorod (or Uzhgorod), the major city of the region, simultaneously in three different language editions: English, Rusyn and Ukrainian. The book is chronological and focuses on major male figures and historic events. The author's mastery of the subject is evident and the pictures are well selected. While this will mostly be of interest to Rusyns, it is a good book for getting a brief overview of their history and the region for anyone who wants to learn about them.