2018

Honorable Mention: Borislav Chernev
Title: Twilight of Empire: The Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917-1918 (University of Toronto Press)

Although the treaties signed as a result of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference were materially short-lived, the conference itself marked the origins of ideological and political developments that endure to this day. Persuasively argued and carefully documented, with newly available archival material from Austria and Bulgaria, Twilight of Empire makes the case that as proletarian revolution encountered imperial collapse at BrestLitovsk, Europe’s “short twentieth century” began, with fascism, communism and democracy violently contending for dominance. In addition, the study provocatively argues that neither the Central Powers nor the Bolshevik Russians were as united in the negotiations as previously assumed; that media scrutiny and global reporting had no precedent before Brest-Litovsk; that national self-determination was already well-ensconced in EastCentral European discourse long before the Paris Peace Conference; and that continuing contestation of Ukrainian independence and statehood resonates with this much earlier period. Twilight of Empire illuminates contemporary politics through careful consideration of the past.

Winner: Elidor Mëhilli