http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4232.
THE ROMANIAN REVOLUTION OF DECEMBER 1989
Peter Siani-Davies
Cornell University Press, 2007.
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was the most spectacularly violent and
remains today the most controversial of all the East European upheavals of
that year. Despite (or perhaps because of) the media attention the
revolution received, it remains shrouded in mystery. How did the seemingly
impregnable Ceausescu regime come to be toppled so swiftly and how did Ion
Iliescu and the National Salvation Front come to power? Was it by coup
d’état? Who were the mysterious “terrorists” who wreaked such havoc on the
streets of Bucharest and the other major cities of Romania? Were they
members of the notorious securitate? What was the role of the Soviet Union?
Blending narrative with analysis, Peter Siani-Davies seeks to answer these
and other questions while placing the events and their immediate aftermath
within a wider context. Based on fieldwork conducted in Romania and drawing
heavily on Romanian sources, including television and radio transcripts,
official documents, newspaper reports, and interviews, this book is the most
thorough study of the Romanian Revolution that has appeared in English or
any other major European language.
Recognizing that a definitive history of these events may be impossible,
Siani-Davies focuses on the ways in which participants interpreted the
events according to particular scripts and myths of revolution rooted in the
Romanian historical experience. In the process the author sheds light on the
ways in which history and the conflicting retellings of the 1989 events are
put to political use in the transitional societies of Eastern Europe.
About the Author
Peter Siani-Davies is Director of the Centre for South-East European Studies
and Senior Lecturer in Modern South-East European Studies, School of
Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. He is the
coauthor of Romania (revised edition) and editor of International
Intervention in the Balkans since 1995.
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