Book Reviews / East Central Europe 39 (2012) 357–373 365

Book Reviews / East Central Europe 39 (2012) 357–373 365 Vanhaelemeersch, Philip. A Generation “Without Beliefs” and the Idea of Experience in Romania (1927–1934) Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 2006. 320 pp. ISBN 978- 0880335973. Language: English. Philip Vanhaelemeersch started his graduate work at the University of Oxford passionate about Mircea Eliade’s scholarly contributions in the realm of philosophy and history of religion. His interests developed to extend to the philosophical discourse during the period of Eliade’s youth in Bucharest, Romania: the 1920s and 30s. This research constituted his doc- toral dissertation, which was subsequently published as A Generation “Without Beliefs” and the Idea of Experience in Romania (2006). This is an excellent opportunity for those interested in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe to discover a vibrant philosophical discourse in Romania. This is the first work in English on Romania’s philosophy of experience (experienţa) and an important contribution to the existing literature on what is most frequently referred to as the Young Generation or Generation 1927 of Romanian intellectuals, of which Eliade was the self-appointed leader. Intellectual histories about Romania tack- ling the same figures in English include Zigu Ornea’s The Romanian Extreme Right. The Nineteen Thirties (1999), Leon Volovici’s Nationalist Ideology and Anti-Semitism: the Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s (1991) and Irina Livezeanu’s ‘Generational Politics and the Philosophy of Culture: Lucian Blaga between Tradition and Modernism.’ Austrian History Yearbook Volume 33 (2002) 207-237. Vanhaelemeersch’s contribution is different from the earlier contributions because he focuses on the philosophy of experience and the intellectual history of the period. The historical moment Vanhaelemeersch chose to examine is of crucial importance in Romanian history. The Romanian nation-state, which was newly expanded as a result of the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, faced a number of challenges, including inte- grating the acquired provinces and the increased minority populations. The intellectuals were preoccupied with what they saw as the moment when Romania joined the world stage, moving from a minor to major culture. Anyone who wanted a voice in Romanian culture came from the provinces to Bucharest after studying abroad for some portion of their university years, a tradition long held since the 1848 liberal revolutionaries. The intellectual landscape of Romania at the turn of the 20th century split between two camps: Traditionalists (Authochtonists or Indigenists) and Europeanists (Modernists or Pro-Westerners). The generation under examination in this book bridged this divide. Their movement (the philosophy of experience) had far-reaching implications across the rest of Europe following their activity in Bucharest. Experienţa could be considered to be the precursor to French existen- tialism, and in his later life, Emil Cioran another key figure in the movement, became a prominent nihilist philosopher in Paris in the tradition of Nietzsche and the young Sartre. The main merit of this work is that Vanhaelemeersch provides a solid and detailed out- line of the intellectual history of Romania from the 19th to early 20th century. At first he dis- cusses the different generations and describes how World War I was part of that cleavage between the “war-children” and the “sacrificed”, or “lost”, generation. In Part I he traces the preceding intellectual traditions and trends: Poporanism, Sowerism (Sămănătorism), Thoughtism (Gândirism), Orthodoxism, and Neo-Junimism, and explains how each one fed into and led to the next, culminating in the philosophy of experience, which is the subject of Part II. Vanhaelemeersch focuses on the key intellectuals involved in each of the movements © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012 DOI 10.1163/18763308-03903008 366 Book Reviews / East Central Europe 39 (2012) 357–373 responsible for the dissemination of the various ideologies. He also gives detailed biographi- cal portraits of the relevant intellectuals within their respective schools of thought: Nicolae Iorga (Sowerism); Lucian Blaga and Nichifor Crainic (Gândirism); Mihail Dragomirescu (Junimism). Part II is devoted to the “generation of experience,” beginning first with a chapter on University of Bucharest professor Vasile Pârvan and how he introduced Bergson’s Lebensphilosophie (élan vital) to Romania. Pârvan died early, and Nae Ionescu, another professor at the University of Bucharest picked up his intellectual vitalist torch. Chapter 2 examines Ionescu’s transition from Orthodoxism to Lebensphilosophie, and his eventual advocacy for trăirism (the act of living). His teaching was absorbed by the Young Generation for whom “experience” became more than a philosophy, but a way of life. This approach was captured in the distinctive form of writing of the time: autobiographical literature, diaries and the feuilleton. Chapter 3 focuses on three key figures of the Young Generation: Eliade launching the idea of experience; Petru Comarnescu systematizing the idea of experience and finally Cioran’s radical promotion of maximizing the present and living experience. Vanhaelemeersch claims that this intellectual conversation ended in 1934. Historically this was a moment of rupture, when King Carol I’s power started to wane and the far-right Iron Guard began to gain a stronghold in Bucharest. The luxury of the intellectual debate ended abruptly as democracy disintegrated, and hooliganism and rightist extremism took over across Europe. Vanhaelemeersch’s work is invaluable to intellectual and cultural historians of Europe, as well as those interested in the history of religion and philosophy. His effort is an important contribution to the fields of modern European history and continental philosophy more broadly. This nexus of debate that he captures, ongoing in Bucharest during the tumultuous interwar period, demonstrates that the “Western” canon cannot overlook Romanian philosophy and intellectual history. Furthermore, Romania’s cultural figures were not only debating ideas from both East and West, but they were also following those philosophical notions to their conclusions. Far from being isolated in the lecture halls of the University of Bucharest, Nae Ionescu encouraged his students to live and to experience. Fearless and dar- ing, the Young Generation did just that: with their cultural activity (e.g. the Criterion Association 1932–35), their creative literature and their daily lives. The intellectual labora- tory in early 20th century Southeastern Europe that Vanhaelemeersch reconstructs brings to mind contemporary questions regarding the role of public intellectuals in both Europe and North America, the relevance of the study of philosophy more broadly and the concrete implications of the exploration of abstract ideas. This subject matter extends beyond region- alism, as the more general themes inspired by, but not relegated to the study of Eastern Europe and this Young Generation include ethnic tension, violent history, exploitation, class conflict, land disputes, political harassment, unjust imprisonment, and the development of democracy. The major weakness in the book is that Vanhaelemeersch does not address the political implications of the philosophy of experience nor does he examine the political activities of this group of intellectuals. Nevertheless, the book remains an important contribution to numerous fields within European history. Cristina Adriana Bejan Duke University.

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