Abstract

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.
a well-written, well-translated and well-illustrated book . . . much more than a tourist guide . . . both useful and enlightening from a historical and cultural point of view.' – Choice '. . . an interesting and timely contribution to our growing understanding of the regional geography of a post-communist country about which relatively little is known . . . Boia's book is noteworthy as it is neither a simple regional geography nor is it a travelogue . . . a wonderful book about Romania . . . a useful aid to critical understanding - one unfettered by the more common preoccupation with potted histories and dry trade statistics. Scholars will value it for its theoretically sophisticated approach and its respect for its readership.' –Geography
Lucian Boia is Professor of History at the University of Bucharest. He is the author of Great Historians of the Modern Age (1991) and La Fin du Monde: une Histoire sans Fin (1989)