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A review by swordvampire
In Europe's Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond by Robert D. Kaplan
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I have thoughts....
Where to start with this one?
I think In Europe’s Shadow does a good job of providing an outsider perspective to the communist regime of Romania that a lot of people outside the country have little understanding of. As a Romanian-American myself, I was raised with my parents and their friends' stories of communism from their childhood, and was looking for another angle and deep-dive into those experiences to better understand. I think Kaplan provides another (not better, per se) perspective on Romania and pulls in a lot of history and anecdotes to make the dauntingly complicated history more approachable for people unfamiliar with the country and its history.
However, this is clearly written by a journalist, full of anecdotes of his travels, and a lot of his biases come through. I would say this is a good entry point to starting your journey to understand Romanian history, but as someone already with an understanding of Romanian history, I was able to discern where the bias was prominent and what actually was useful. Undeniably, the more approachable language is what makes this digestible for an audience looking to learn but aren’t quite historians or academics by nature, but I would dig into the bibliography for a more dry-cut, more objective understanding of communism in Romania.
Where to start with this one?
I think In Europe’s Shadow does a good job of providing an outsider perspective to the communist regime of Romania that a lot of people outside the country have little understanding of. As a Romanian-American myself, I was raised with my parents and their friends' stories of communism from their childhood, and was looking for another angle and deep-dive into those experiences to better understand. I think Kaplan provides another (not better, per se) perspective on Romania and pulls in a lot of history and anecdotes to make the dauntingly complicated history more approachable for people unfamiliar with the country and its history.
However, this is clearly written by a journalist, full of anecdotes of his travels, and a lot of his biases come through. I would say this is a good entry point to starting your journey to understand Romanian history, but as someone already with an understanding of Romanian history, I was able to discern where the bias was prominent and what actually was useful. Undeniably, the more approachable language is what makes this digestible for an audience looking to learn but aren’t quite historians or academics by nature, but I would dig into the bibliography for a more dry-cut, more objective understanding of communism in Romania.