Title: crucial period in development of modern Romania
Product review: This highly readable volume details the final, and finally successful, attempt of the Romanian "principalities" -- in this case, only Muntenia and Moldova, not Transylvania -- to unite into a single country, and gradually to increase their autonomy and independence vis-a-vis the Great Powers, especially the Ottoman and Russian empires. The focus is on the struggle to create a modern democracy, as attempts at reform (especially agricultural reform) are stymied repeatedly by an electorate that includes only the wealthy landowners: "in Moldova, a population of nearly 2,000,000 was represented by only 1,724 voters, while in Muntenia, some 2,500,000 people resulted in 2,072 voters." Complicating political reform further is fear of the growing Jewish minority in Moldova, and the obnoxious political usage to which that fear is put. All in all, a most interesting story.
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