In Search for the Perfect Romanian. National Specificity, Racial Degeneration and Social Selection in Modern Romania, Iași, Polirom Publishing House, 2024. Marius Turda
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Through In Search for the Perfect Romanian. National Specificity, Racial Degeneration and Social Selection in Modern Romania [În căutarea românului perfect. Specific național, degenerare rasială și selecție socială în România modernă], Marius Turda proposes a new method to understand and explain the foundations of Romanian nationalism between 1880 and 1950. Structured in six chapters, the book shows that in Romania there was a eugenic and biopolitical culture that was to define Romanian nationalism and scientific racism. Its extreme forms materialized in the measures taken against Jews and Roma during the Holocaust in Romania. I review the book from the perspective of social memory. By questioning some present-day commemorative practices I highlight the present legacies of eugenics: schools named after strategists of racism, such as Sabin Manuilă; public commemorations of anti-Semites such as Liviu Stan or Nicolae Paulescu.
Source: Sociologie Romaneasca
DOI: 10.33788/sr.22.2.9
Author: Adrian-Nicolae Furtună
Language: English
Topic: Medical History and Research
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4407261613