The current transformation of many Eastern European societies is impossible to understand without comprehending the intellectual struggles surrounding nationalism in the region. Anthropologist Katherine Verdery shows how the example of Romania suggests that current ethnic tensions come not from a resurrection of pre-Communist Nationalism but from the strengthening of national ideologies under Communist Party rule.

Katherine Verdery is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, and the author of Transylvanian Villagers (California, 1983).

"Argues that nationalism was not—as elsewhere—merely a tool in the hands of Party leaders, but, by becoming the main concern of the Party and the intellectuals, was a major element in discrediting Marxism and destroying the Party's legitimacy. . . . [A] highly learned book."—István Deák, New York Review of Books

"Not only a rigorous historico-political analysis but also a rich narrative of the tribulations of intellectual work under socialism, which relies on field interviews, extensive readings, and on 'those old ethnographic standbys: intuition, overheard gossip, and rumor.'"—Marcel Cornis-Pope, Slavic Review