In her innovative volume Natalie Kononenko examines the beginnings and development into prominence of Ukrainian-sung epic poems known as dumy (dumas), which originated in the fourteenth century and came to prominence during the kozak (Cossack) era in the seventeenth century. The performers, known as lirnyky or kobzari, derived their designation from the instrument used to accompany them, the multi-stringed lira or kobzar (later known as bandura). The author examines the early influence of ballads and laments on the oral composition and singing of these songs, which were about the daily lives of ordinary folk and their special achievements. In addition, they celebrated kozak military exploits, rebellion against tyranny, and daily kozak life. Initially performed by sighted bards, by the nineteenth century dumas were being sung by blind mendicants. The twentieth century saw the minstrels organized into guilds, modeled after Ukraine's trade guilds. To avoid being labeled mendicants instead of minstrels providing a service, they performed in towns and villages beyond their own.

The first of six chapters chronicle the dumas’ historical fortunes and provide useful comparisons with this genre in other countries. Subsequent chapters feature historical events like Ukrainian enslavement by Tatar-Turks, the rise of the Cossacks, and their Khmel΄nyts΄kyi period, highlighting the Bohdan Khmel΄nyts΄kyi cycle of duma compositions. Following his death in 1657, these epic songs reflected the post-Khmel΄nyts΄kyi era, defined as the “Ruin.” This also marked the end of new duma compositions.

Kononenko emphasizes the significance of dumas in heightening a Ukrainian consciousness, a feature that is still capable of exciting the popular imagination today. In this context, to highlight the unique significance of duma study, it might also have proved useful to mention another early manifestation of a Ukrainian self-identity as it evolved elsewhere—in sixteenth-century L΄viv especially—among members of the Stavropigiia (Dormition) Brotherhood, with its significant cultural and educational achievements, such as founding Ukraine's first public school and printing press. Although the Brotherhood's example spread to other Ukrainian towns and made an impressive contribution to the evolution of that early manifestation of a Ukrainian consciousness, its influence, and that of later such institutions, did not have the same impact as did the dumas because they possessed no comparable vehicle for wider transmission of the Brotherhood's achievements.

This pioneer study includes a chapter on the Turco-Tatar enslavement of Ukrainians—captured as booty during warfare or in raids on Ukrainian lands. The Ottoman Empire compartmentalized them into galley slaves (literally worked to death under brutal conditions); skilled laborers to fill labor shortages (tagged for manumission after six or seven years); and those marked for integration into the Ottoman world (where women might rise to high positions and men become janissaries). This volume, with its meticulous attention to detail and comprehensive coverage of a significant aspect of Ukrainian history is the product of Kononenko's many years of dedicated research on folklore and the folk epic, and their part in shaping the Ukrainian consciousness. Together with exhaustive archival and print research, the author developed an impressive familiarity with Ukrainian and Turkish society, enhanced by extended stays in locals’ homes. This enhanced her importance as an insightful observer of the ways that Ukrainian folk epics lend themselves to being viewed as “metaphors” for a heightened Ukrainian national awareness, and creates an invaluable resource for the encouragement of further studies on folklore and folk epics in Ukraine and elsewhere.