Between States The Transylvanian Question and the European Idea during World War II Holly Case |
2009 376 pp. 2 tables, 22 illustrations, 3 maps. ISBN-10: 0804759863
ISBN-13: 9780804759861 Cloth $60 | |
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Description Reviews Author Info
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Case's thoughtful, substantive work challenges prevailing conception on 20th-century European politics by arguing that small states do make an impact on larger European concerns .... Case's book also suggests significant new avenues of research on national and European identity politics ... Highly recommended."—R. K. Byczkiewicz, Choice. "A very original and sophisticated piece of work. . . . Full of new insights and. . . amazing research in a great variety of archives and languages. . . pulled together in a most intelligent way."—Mark Mazower, Columbia University "This will take a rightful place among the really important and interesting works written on East Central Europe in the last forty years. It also figures among the most penetrating and memorable evocations of place written about Europe as a whole. The author is a brilliant, naturally gifted writer, with a keen sense for telling formulation."—John Connelly, University of California, Berkeley The Transylvanian Question—the struggle between Hungary and Romania for control of Transylvania—seems at first sight a side-show in the story of the Nazi New Order and the Second World War. These two allies of the Third Reich spent much of the war arguing bitterly among themselves over Transylvania's future, and Europe's leaders, Germany and Italy, were drawn into their dispute to prevent it from spiraling into a regional war. But precisely as a result of this interaction, the story of the Transylvanian Question offers a new way into the history of the European idea—how state leaders and national elites have interpreted what "Europe" means and what it does. For tucked into the folds of the Transylvanian Question's bizarre genealogy is a secret that no one ever tried to keep, but that has remained a secret nonetheless: small states matter. The perspective of small states puts the struggle for mastery among its Great Powers into a new and perhaps chastening perspective. In short, when we look closely at what people in small states think and how they behave, the history of twentieth-century Europe looks suddenly very different. |
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