Maria Bucur, "The Nation’s Gratitude: World War I and Citizenship Rights in Interwar Romania" (Routledge, 2022)

Mar 4, 2022

The Nation’s Gratitude

World War I and Citizenship Rights in Interwar Romania

Maria Bucur

Hosted by Roland Clark

Buy Book

Summary

A pioneering work for the history of veterans’ rights in Romania, Maria Bucur's book The Nation’s Gratitude: World War I and Citizenship Rights in Interwar Romania (Routledge, 2022) brings into focus the laws and policies the state developed in response to the unprecedented human losses in World War I. It features in lively and accessible language the varied responses of veterans, widows and orphans to those policies. The analysis emphasizes how ordinary citizens became educated about and used state institutions in ways that highlight the class, ethnic, religious and gender norms of the day. The book offers a vivid case study of how disability as a personal reality for many veterans became a point of policy making, a story that has seen little scholarly interest despite the enormous populations affected by these developments. Overall, the monograph shows how, in the postwar European states, citizenship as engaged practice was shaped by both government policies as well as the interpretation a large and varied group of beneficiaries gave to these policies.

Roland Clark is a Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Liverpool, a Senior Fellow with the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, and the Principal Investigator of an AHRC-funded project on European Fascist Movements.