Oana Cristina Țiganea, The Rise and Fall of Romanian “Steel Fortresses” and the Case of Hunedoara, 1949-1999. Built and Environmental Legacies of Socialist Industrialisation
Oana Cristina Țiganea, The Rise and Fall of Romanian “Steel Fortresses” and the Case of Hunedoara, 1949-1999. Built and Environmental Legacies of Socialist Industrialisation

Summary/Abstract: Based on a doctorate conducted at the Politecnico di Milano and a decade of research, Oana Țiganea’s book addresses the most famed socialist heavy-industry site in Romania: Hunedoara. Written from a heritage perspective, it aims at providing an exhaustive historical research on the tangible legacy of steel industry in Hunedoara at all scales, from the physical transformations at geographic level to building details, together with an insight into the intangible heritage of the specific culture and the social reality this industry has created. The book combines the most in-depth historical analysis with the widest perspective. While the focus is set on socialist Hunedoara, this case is also widely contextualized, both temporally and spatially – addressed over a longer time frame and on a wider territory. Its evolution is followed from the beginnings of metallurgic industry on this site, before the modern Romanian state even existed, to its rise as the very epitome of heavy industrialization in socialist Romania, and eventually to its post-socialist fall into the partial ruination we see today. By also investigating the two other major steel sites of Reșița and Galați and highlighting the networking feature of steel production under socialism, the book eventually gives the most comprehensive picture of the evolution of the steel industry on Romanian territory.

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