Despite the often pivotal role of central and eastern Europe in the history of the twentieth century there has been relatively little research, or at least little published in English, on the gestation of the region’s political culture during the emergence of popular—and more to the point populist—politics at the end of the nineteenth century. This book, which is above all a history of political ideology, and primarily of the intellectual circles in which it was discussed and the publications that promoted it, fills important gaps in our knowledge of the region’s political culture. It begins with a lengthy discussion of theoretical and methodological questions, along with a brief sketch of the historical context during the half century before the outbreak of the First World War.

The author rejects the dominant received perspectives, not least those written from a national, and often nationalist perspective, in favor of a “transnational” approach, seeking to locate the experience of Galicia and Romania in the context of broader developments in the region and beyond. The focus is first on conservatism, which is covered in two chapters, dealing respectively with its origins as a response to threats to traditional authority from democracy and revolution, and then with its evolution into an ideologically driven movement rooted in the new intelligentsia. In both countries the challenges were familiar: how to address the impact of “modernization,” and respond to the pressure to “westernize.” In Galicia the “Cracow School” and its journal Przegląd Polski’ elaborated a program of economic and constitutional reforms, most of which were ultimately eclipsed by the events that played out in Vienna in 1867, and above all by the need to gain the best deal for the province within the new Austria-Hungary. In Romania the Juminea circle was founded as a consciously elitist literary group, ostensibly supporting the constitutional monarchy, while criticizing the emptiness of its institutions; rejecting liberal plans to modernize the country, but ultimately ambivalent in its attitude towards both liberals and conservatives.

The principal groupings on the political left, Galician democrats and Romanian socialists, are dealt with in a single chapter that covers a number of popular movements, including varieties of populism and “narodnicism,” or “poporanism” in its Romanian incarnation. The cumulative impression of all this activity is reminiscent of the atmosphere of an Ivan Turgenev novel, where intellectuals and political activists attempt to come to terms with the impact of change, invent strategies to address it, and then rapidly re-invent them as circumstances change again. The discussion ends with not one but two concluding chapters dealing with the centrality to all of this of “westernization” and “modernization,” concepts that commanded the attention of all those involved, whether they liked it or not. There were strong reasons for rejecting western models of “modernization,” not least the political constraints imposed by the international context. Galicia remained within the Habsburg empire, and was arguably better off than those parts of Poland under German and Russian rule. The strategies of Galician politicians tended to acknowledge that situation and work with it, at least for the time being. Romania, while independent, was not yet entirely free of Ottoman tutelage, and was at the same time in the shadow of an expansionist Russia. Possibilities were therefore limited before 1914, but the ideas that evolved in these formative decades were flexible enough to adapt to the new dispensation after the end of the war, and to shape the political climate of the interwar years.

The book is the author’s reworked doctoral thesis. It is aimed primarily at researchers in the field, and some prior knowledge will certainly be helpful for readers. It is based on extensive original research using a wide range of contemporary publications and a thorough reading of the secondary literature. The project is an ambitious one, covering both Galicia and Romania, and in each case examines both conservatism and the left. This is a lot to compress into a limited space, which occasionally makes the exposition and the arguments difficult to follow. Even so, the effort is fully repaid, and the book constitutes a welcome contribution to our understanding of the history of east central Europe.