Memento, People and Deeds
Memento, People and Deeds

Summary/Abstract: The study highlights the main ideas that can be drawn from two notable works that focus on Romania’s contemporary history, which saw the light of print at the Parisian publisher L’Harmattan. Yvonne Blondel’s Journal de Guerre 1916–1917 (2001) is a genuine historical document, which describes the tribulations of the Romanian Army on the southern front, culminating in the abandonment of Bucharest and the withdrawal to Moldavia, seen through the eyes of a woman who belonged to the French aristocracy and diplomatic service. She brought her contribution in a field hospital that permanently accompanied the Romanian army. In his book, Un géographe français et la Roumanie: Emmanuel de Martonne (1873–1955) (2012) Gavin Bowd skillfully highlights the support brought by the French geographer Emmanuel de Martonne to the knowledge, understanding and support of Romania’s claims to territorial unity. Romania and its century-long course (from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth) are described through the eyes of the French geographer and his French and Romanian disciples, with the entire corollary of episodes regarding the moments when the French-Romanian relations tightened or cooled off, the latter being caused by Romania’s entry into the Soviet sphere of influence.

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