Book excerpt: This original and ground-breaking work examines the building of the European nation which became Romania in 1859. The evolution of the Romanians in the century between the 1770s and the 1860s was marked by a transition from long-established agrarian economic and social structures, locked into an essentially medieval political system, to a society moulded by urban and industrial values and held together by allegiance to the nation-state. This fascinating analysis of the building of a European nation-state is the first detailedf account of the Romanians during this dramatic period.