"Starting from the history of concepts, Victor Neumann shows how the variety of connotations associated with the ideas of 'nation' and 'people' have been circumscribed in south-eastern Europe, holding back the region over many decades. More important, with erudition and seriousness of purpose, he mounts a defence of a notion of identity that is neither fixed nor monocultural, and proposes a legal definition of 'nation' that can resist exclusivist or racist versions. In an age when counter-rational fantasies about identity seem to be prevailing, when many seem unaware of or have forgotten where such thinking leads, Neumann's is a much-needed voice of reason." - Dan Stone, Professor of Modern History, Royal Holloway, University of London With a focus on the origins and evolution of political identity, this book explores the way different linguistic communities have defined kin, ethnicity, citizenship and the nation. As Neumann traces the transition over the last two centuries of European history, from the medieval to the modern age, he pays particular attention to the idealistic philosophies that have influenced the intellectual landscape and political discourse of European regions today, and which have intensified the division between East and West in terms of cultural norms, legislation and administration.

The Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment - these seismic developments in Western thought were not confined to Italy and her near neighbours, but were paralleled across the vast and culturally diverse territory stretching from Vienna to Constantinople. Drawing on an array of sources, many of which were little-known before he made this ground-breaking study, Victor Neumann charts the development of Eastern European thought and its literary and artistic expression from the Middle Ages to the modern age. First published, to great acclaim in Romania in 1991, this newly revised, updated and illustrated edition has been published as Neumann's home city of Timisoara prepares to receive visitors from across the world as European Capital of Culture, and at a time when the question of what it means to be European is being debated more than ever.

The Banat is a uniquely fascinating example of a European cross-border region, incorporating parts of western Romania, northeastern Serbia and a small area of southeastern Hungary. The team of historians, headed by Professor Victor Neumann of the West University in Timisoara, who have contributed to this volume are drawn from across the three modern nations of the region. They analyse the history and culture of the Banat from the earliest times, focusing on the 300 years since it was captured from the Ottoman Turks by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Today this ethnically diverse region has a distinct character of its own, and its Romanian seat, the city of Timisoara, exudes a character quite different from Transylvania and the rest of Romania. This new English edition of the book (originally published in Romanian in 2016 under the title Istoria Banatului) has been expanded and is published to support Timisoara's designation as European Capital of Culture in 2023.