Elites, church and nation at the Transylvanian Romanians (1853-1918)
The present article reviews a collective volume coordinated by Dr. Mirela Popa-Andrei which, attached to a modern historiographical trend, investigates the Transylvanian Romanians elites representing the cultural and political vanguard in Transylvania before the Grand National Assembly of Alba Iulia on December 1, 1918 – when the union of Transylvania with Romania was decided. The authors observe, most probably indirectly, Pierre de Boisdeffre’s principle stating the control of the researcher’s passions and cultural sympathies; thus, the contributors to this study (a real dictionary of that world, actually) manage to convincingly and extensively illustrate the Romanian avant-garde and its major role fulfilled in the second half of the 19th century. Due to this results, as well as to the new methodological perspective, the reviewed volume already represents an authoritative presence in the landscape of contemporary Romanian historiography.
Keywords: history of modern Romania, Transylvania in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Great Union of 1918, Mirela Popa-Andrei
1. * Canonici, profesori şi vicari foranei din Biserica Română Unită (1853 – 1918). Dicţionar. Volum întocmit de: Mirela Popa – Andrei (coordonator), Diana Covaci, Ana Victoria Sima, Mihaela Bedecean, Aurelia Dan, Iosif Marin Balog, Cluj – Napoca, „Mega”, 2013, 454 p.
2. Iacob Mârza, Şcoală şi naţiune (Şcolile de la Blaj în epoca renaşterii naţionale) / School and Nation (The Blaj Schools in the times of national rebirth), Cluj-Napoca, „Dacia”, 1987; idem, École et nation (Les écoles de Blaj à l’époque de la renaissance nationale). Traduction Rodica Chira et Doina Puşcău, Cluj-Napoca, „CET”, 2005.
