Contested Borderland

Cusco, Andrei

ISBN 10: 9633861594 / ISBN 13: 9789633861592

Published by Central European University Press, 2017

About this Item

pp. 350.

Seller Inventory # 388907910

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Contested Borderland
• Publisher: Central European University Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9633861594
• ISBN 13: 9789633861592
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Bessarabia, mostly occupied by modern-day republic of Moldova, was the only territory representing an object of rivalry and symbolic competition between the Russian Empire and a fully crystallized nation-state: the Kingdom of Romania. This book is an intellectual prehistory of the Bessarabian problem, focusing on the antagonism of the national and imperial visions of this contested periphery. Through a critical reassessment and revision of the traditional historical narratives, the study argues that Bessarabia was claimed not just by two opposing projects of 'symbolic inclusion', but also by two alternative and theoretically antagonistic models of political legitimacy. By transcending the national lens of Bessarabian / Moldovan history and viewing it in the broader Eurasian comparative context, the book responds to the growing tendency in recent historiography to focus on the peripheries in order to better understand the functioning of national and imperial states in the modern era.

About the Author

Andrei Cusco is Director of the Center for Empire Studies at the Department of History and Philosophy within Moldova State University.