Politics and peasants in interwar Romania

摘要

Sorin RADU and Oliver Jens SCHMITT's recent volume tackles a thorny question in nationalism studies - Who becomes part of the political nation and why?The book focuses on 'Greater Romania', a newly integrated nation-state where the key conundrum was that 'for some the country was not democratic enough, for others not national enough' (Boia 2011). Although the literature on nation-building in interwar Romania is quite well developed, a persistent gap does indeed exist concerning the peasantry. This is particularly surprising for a country which counted 80% rural population as far as 1930. Bearing this in mind, Radu and Schmitt's volume is a welcome addition to the literature. Throughout 16 dense chapters this volume brings together an impressive array of methodologies (sociology, anthropology, political history), so as to contribute to the aforementioned gap.