Henri H. Stahl, Constantin Garoflid and “rural question” near 1938
The following paper is an attempt to integrate two articles, written by Henri H. Stahl and Constantin Garoflid for the first volume of „Enciclopedia României”, with the context in which they were written and published, that of the year 1938 and its recent past. Both articles deal with Romania’s peasantry, its social history, social classes and rural property, state interventions, policies and reforms and the country’s predominant agrarian economy. Beyond the fact that each of the two articles has as a main focus a rather different interval of time and social change, what sets them strongly appart is their polemic view on the above topics and issues. Moreover, as we explore their contents, dealing mostly with the past, we find that they are strongly connected with the context in which they were written and published, giving and receiving meanings in relation to it. We thus find that the articles offer threads of meaning connecting internal and external politics and economical contexts, the state’s social and economic policies, individual and group stakes and actions, the past with the present and their authors with their personal and social backgrounds.
Keywords: Henri H. Stahl, Constantin Garoflid, „Enciclopedia României”, peasants, social history, Bucharest School of Sociology, rural development, state, social classes, rural property, 1938, social context