Those who study Romania must confront the theoretical challenges posed by a country that is undergoing a profound transformation from a repressive totalitarianism regime to a hazy and as yet unrealized democratic government. The most comprehensive survey of Romanian politics and society ever published abroad, this volume represents an effort to collect and analyze data on the complex problems of Romania's past and its transition into an uncertain future. Henry F. Carey has brought together the world's leading scholars on Romania to discuss key aspects of the country's sites of conflict in a groundbreaking work that includes six resident Romanian authors who rarely publish in the global academic press. Romania since 1989 is must for anyone seeking either a basic understanding or a sophisticated analysis of contemporary Romania. The book is also an invaluable resource for those who study the economies and governments of other countries in transition, as it presents an ideal case study with lessons that can be applied elsewhere.

'Crafting humans' - and its corollary human enhancement - is a contested topic, both in medical sciences and the humanities. With continuing advances in science and technology, scientists and the general public alike are aware that the basic foundations of the human condition are now at stake. This volume contributes to this growing body of work. It offers insights into some of the reflections and imaginaries that have inspired and legitimated both theoretical and practical programmes for 'crafting' humans, ranging from the religious/spiritualist and the philosophical/cultural to the secular and the scientific/scientistic; from the religious and mystical quest for human perfection to the biopolitical eugenic state of the twentieth century and current theories of human enhancement. This volume discusses these topics in a synchronized way, as interrelated variants of the most central story in history, that of human perfectibility.