Romania (Reaktion Books - Topographics)

Romania (Reaktion Books - Topographics)

Lucian Boia

Language: English

Pages: 240

ISBN: 1861891032

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Romania occupies a unique position on the map of Eastern Europe. It is a country that presents many paradoxes. In this book the preeminent Romanian historian Lucian Boia examines his native land's development from the Middle Ages to modern times, delineating its culture, history, language, politics and ethnic identity. Boia introduces us to the heroes and myths of Romanian history, and provides an enlightening account of the history of Romanian Communism. He shows how modernization and the influence of the West have divided the nation - town versus country, nationalists versus pro-European factions, the elite versus the masses - and argues that Romania today is in chronic difficulty as it tries to fix its identity and envision a future for itself.

The book concludes with a tour of Bucharest, whose houses, streets and public monuments embody Romania's traditional values and contemporary contradictions.

Adbusters, Issue 97: Post Anarchism

Culture on Display: The Production of Contemporary Visitability (Issues in Cultural and Media Studies)

Mechademia 6: User Enhanced

I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not mean winning the war. It was the Turks who won the wars in the end! And their result is indisputable: for a long period, the Romanian lands came within the Ottoman orbit. Three battles are celebrated above all the others as great Romanian victories: Rovine (1394), Vaslui (1475) and Ca˘luga˘reni (1595). Our knowledge about Rovine is fragmentary. It may in fact 65 have been inconclusive. What is certain is that in its aftermath Mircea the Old, the Prince of Wallachia, was forced to take.

Power; once installed, the new government would organize elections, which it invariably won! This is yet another illustration of ‘forms without substance’: the forms were British, the substance Romanian, and the conductor’s baton was in the hand of a German, as skilful as he was rigorous! Carol, Bra˘tianu and Mihail Koga˘ lniceanu (formerly Prime Minister under Cuza, and now Foreign Minister in the Bra˘tianu cabinet) were the principal protagonists at the moment of indepen90 dence. In fact,.

That they were informers; they can be counted on one’s fingers. Otherwise, no-one is willing to accept that they had anything to do with the Securitate. If we were to go just by confessions, the subject could be laid to rest once and for all. It remains to be seen what the files will say. A member of the Senate, Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu, initiated a proposal for a law on the East German model – in other words, an independent commission to take over all of the files, and complete transparency.

Belgian model was more appropriate than the French), and it had an advanced constitution, which the Romanians had imitated, in letter if not very faithfully in spirit; it enjoyed a European status guaranteed by the great powers, and, not least, an economic dynamism and impressive prosperity. (Scarcely visible on the world map, it had become one of the great economic powers of the nineteenth century.) Belgium had all the requisite characteristics to make the Romanians dream. ‘Belgium of the East’.

‘Magyaren’; a substantial group lies at the centre of the Romanian space. Note the numerous German ‘islands’, marked ‘Sachs.’ and ‘D.’, which are practically gone today. ‘Osmanen’ indicates the Turkish population of the Balkan peninsula, including Dobrogea; nowadays, Dobrogea is almost entirely Romanian. Towards the west, the Romanians barely reach the Tisza (‘Theiß’), while in the east, there are Romanian ‘islands’ beyond the Dniester (‘Dnjestr’), and even beyond the Bug. Today, the shadings.

Download sample

Download