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From The Enlightenment To Genocide: The Evolution And Devolution Of Romanian Nationalism, Shawn E. Wooster

Shawn E Wooster Mr.

Romanian nationalism, developed during the first phase of modernization, was significantly influenced by Enlightenment philosophy and by its corollary, Enlightened Despotism. Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson's theories of nationalism's origins are pertinent explaining Romanian nationalism, but are too narrow to consider Romania's unique geographical and cultural conditions. Romania's uniqueness facilitated the creation of "Romanianness,"or ethic consciousness, in eighteenth-century, preindustrial Transylvania without a well-established elite, and it continued to evolve without state-sponsored educational policies. Ethnic consciousness eventually transformed into the racism and genocidal nationalism of World War Two, thus straying from typologies expounded by Gellner and Anderson.