A tale of two villages : coerced modernization in the East European countryside / Alina Mungiu-Pippidi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina.

Standardized Title:

Secera și buldozerul. English

Language:

English

Romani

Subjects (All):

Collective farms--Romania--History--20th century.

Collective farms.

Farmers--Romania--History--20th century.

Farmers.

Rural conditions.

History.

Romania--Rural conditions.

Romania.

Romania--Social conditions--1945-1989.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

219 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2010.

Summary:

Mungiu-Pippidi (political science, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin) takes a close look at two villages in Romania and how they have changed amidst the coming and going of communism and their entrance into the European Union. Much alike before communist rule, the villages were the sites of two differing, powerful experiments in social change and modernization. One village fought the advent of communism, and paid dearly for it, while the other was the birthplace of Romania's communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, and was forced into a different role more befitting the birthplace of a communist leader. Despite all of the social engineering and efforts to modernize these and other villages in communist and post-communist Romania, despite even the efforts of the European Union, the villages seem to resist all changes and tactics. Mungiu-Pippidi and a group of political anthropology students from Romania's National School of Political Studies carried out the field work for this book in 2001-2002; filmed interviews were the basis for a 2003 BBC documentary "A Tale of Two Villages." This English-language book is an updated translation of the Romanian version. Distributed by Books International. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

The argument

Two villages

The construction and the deconstruction of rural property

The invention of social conflict

The destruction and replacement of the elite

The manipulation of lifestyles

From the dependent peasant to the citizen-peasant : the bases of a rural political culture

Between the past and the future.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789639776784

9639776785

OCLC:

574924173