Socialist Heritage (eBook)

Grama's rich historical and ethnographic research reveals the fundamentally dual nature of heritage: every search for an idealized past relies on strategies of differentiation that can lead to further marginalization and exclusion.

1. This book analyzes the political and social transformations of the former socialist bloc through the lens of heritage. The topic is important as speaks to issues of of heritage building and identity formation more generally. While the focus is on Romania, similar strategies and outcomes can be traced to countries throughout the European Union.
2. The book is written in a clear and engaging way, which is a hallmark of the New Anthropologies of Europe series at IU Press. As such it will have an interdisciplinary audience of anthropologists and historians working on heritage studies as well as those studying memory studies, Romania, the European Union, and socialism.
3. The author has a strong social media presence. She will be amenable to marketing the book aggressively at conferences and talks.

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This prize-winning study of post-WWII Romania examines the fraught relationship between national heritage and Socialist statecraft.In Socialist Heritage, ethnographer and historian Emanuela Grama explores the socialist state's attempt to create its own heritage, as well as the ongoing legacy of that project. While many argue that the socialist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe aimed to erase the pre-war history of the socialist cities, Grama shows that the communist state in Romania sought to exploit the past for its own benefit. The book traces the transformation of Bucharest's Old Town district from the early twentieth century into the twenty-first. Under socialism, politicians and professionals used the district's historic buildings-especially the ruins of a medieval palace-to emphasize the city's Romanian past and erase its ethnically diverse history. Since the collapse of socialism, the cultural and economic value of the Old Town has become highly contested. Its poor residents decry their semi-decrepit homes, while entrepreneurs see it as a source of easy money. Such arguments point to recent negotiations about the meanings of class, political participation, and ethnic and economic belonging in today's Romania. Grama's rich historical and ethnographic research reveals the fundamentally dual nature of heritage: every search for an idealized past relies on strategies of differentiation that can lead to further marginalization and exclusion.Winner of the 2020 Ed A. Hewitt Book Prize