Katherine Verdery
National Ideology Under Socialism
Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceausescu's Romania
$32.95, £22.95 paperback
9780520203587
Available Now
406 pages,
May 1991, Available worldwide
May 1991, Available worldwide
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.
"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
"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
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