Full Description
This is the English translation of In cautarea romanului perfect. Specific national, degenerare rasiala si selectie sociala in Romania moderna published in 2024 (second illustrated edition 2025).
The book centers on debates about the Romanian national character and race between 1880s and 1950s. It also argues that during the early 1940s anti-Semitism and anti-Roma racism contributed directly to the programme of ethnic purification pursued by the Antonescu regime. Racism and eugenics explain not just the deportation and murder of the Jews but also the deportation and murder of the Roma. The Holocaust in Romania should therefore be understood as the result not just of anti-Semitism but also of biopolitical nationalism. Finally, the book suggests that the eugenic ideal of the 'perfect' Romanian did not disappear in 1945 but was embedded in the socialist definitions of the 'new man' and 'perfect' society emerging under communism.
Contents
About the Author
List of Maps and Images
Preface to the English Edition
1. Introduction
2. Ethnic Nationalism
3. The Degeneration of the Race
4. Biopolitics, Anthropology and Serology
5. Stigma and Eugenic Sterilisation
6. The Roma and Romanian Blood
7. About Heredity, but without Eugenics
8. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
