Preface

Dear Readers!

We offer to your attention the first issue of the American History and Politics Journal. The idea of the Journal belongs to the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History of Foreign Countries (Department of History) of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where strong scholar traditions of the American and International policy studies have been developing over decades. Historians and policy experts have felt the need for such a Journal for a long time. The American studies have always been an essential part of the Ukrainian intellectual landscape. Variety and polycentrism have always been inherent to the American studies: renowned centers for the American studies exist not only in Kyiv, but in Lviv and Odesa as well.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv was and remains an Alma Mater of the Ukrainian American Studies as it is within its walls that the majority of the American studies scholars was educated and has been working for years. And here were talking not only about historians or international policy experts, but about philosophers, jurists and philologists as well. At the origins of the Kyiv School of the American history and policy studies were illustrious scholars such as V. Ya. Tarasenko, A. M. Shlepakov, G. M. Zvetkow, B. M. Honchar, E. E. Kaminskii. Their disciples are working now in research institutes and in the higher education system; in such a manner they maintain traditions of the Kyiv School of the American studies. Taking all of this into account, it is not unexpected that the abovementioned Journal was established within Taras Shevchenko University.

Lately the Ukrainian American studies were enriched by new research findings in history of the American cine-art, the women’s suffrage and abolitionist movements, the multiculturalism and the immigration issue, and by discussing the global integration processes prospects in the Western World. The USA as a global power came into being also due to their interaction with countries of Latin America and Caribbean region. Therefore, we encourage our colleagues to pay a special attention to inter-American relations and to cultural and civilizational synthesis in the region.

The Editorial Board expects the new Journal to provide an opportunity for our Ukrainian and foreign colleagues to publish their research findings. The Editorial Board respects principles of academic ethics. Thus we will ensure the original character of publications. There is no place for anti-American clichés created and reproduced in other countries and within marginal political discourses.

We look the new periodical to bring together scholars interested in the American studies problematic and to become a platform to discuss strategies for the U.S.-Ukrainian relations.

Thus, dear readers and colleagues we invite you for collaboration. We do believe that this joint effort will benefit our professional skills, advancing the frontier of Ukrainian science in the world.

Sincerely yours,

The American History and Politics Journal

Editorial Board