LAUSR

antisemitism, opposition to Freemasonry, Obscurantism, and so forth (see also Mirel Bănică, Biserica Ortodoxă Română. Stat și societate în anii ’30, 2007). Simultaneously, the author makes the point that some of the Csángó intellectuals were misled into accepting state policies towards Romanization, believing they would thus save the Catholics in Moldavia from what they thought to be the peril of Magyarization. In this manner, some curious theories concerning the origin of the Csángós emerged. Essentially, they depicted them as Romanians (turned into “Székelys”), who came from Transylvania to Moldavia around the seventeentheighteenth centuries (see particularly D. Mărtinaș, Originea ceangăilor din Moldova, 1985). The volume also deals distinctly with Roman Catholic clergymen in Moldavia and Bucharest, as they represented the intellectual and political elites of the Csángós and, thus, produced historiographical, philosophical, and literary texts. This topic deserves further study, as some Csángós were active in Romanian extreme right organizations during the entire interwar period, as well as throughout World War II. Some of the Roman Catholic priests from this community encouraged their flock to abandon Hungarian identity by taking up Romanian names and share in Romanian nationalist ideals. To sum up, this is a book of genuine erudition on ethnically-obscure minorities of southeastern Europe. From 1920 to 1944, the Csángós were an additional reason for academic tensions between Hungary and Romania, as territorial disputes were in the limelight. Davis emphasizes the significance of the part played by various historical and cultural components for the formation of ethnic and national groups. His extensive knowledge on the Csángós helps the book greatly: the author lives up to the challenge of decoding the genealogy of this marginalized group. In an approach that has obviously taken distance from the idea of “pure” peoples or cultures, Hungarian Religion, Romanian Blood is a key cross-disciplinary contribution to our understanding of the Csángós.