REVIEWS 143 socially;but the analysistends towards building up an 'average'view within the parameters of Romanian affirmation rather than breaking down cases individually. The social and political contexts offered are too hasty and allusive, a problem exacerbated when the work is addressed at a foreign audience:thereis no attempt, for instance, to give the readerelementarydata about the lives of the authorsanalysed,or even referencesthereto.This means thatthe socialexplanationsMitu offersforthe appearanceof argumentsabout Romanianness are reduced to secondary generalizations, for instance on competition forpositionswithinthe Habsburgbureaucracy(p. 22); elsewhere, key tenets are dismissed as 'the outcome of a rudimentary process of stereotype-formation'(p. 202). This may indeed be the case, but it tells us perhaps less than we need to know about how these stereotypes actually function. So, for all the fine observations about the ideological implications and undertonesof a given statement,thereis a shortageof social contextualization and demonstrable explanation. Stress is laid on the social particularity of the Transylvanian situation; but after all, similar motifs such as nationalistposturingas response to foreign slander crop up in the writings of Romanians in the Principalities,not to mention those of other nations of the region. This suggeststhat the identity strategiesof the nineteenth century had a rather more oblique relationship with social finalities than the one suggestedby Mitu here. But these disagreements about the organization of the argument do not render Mitu's fundamentalresearch invalid. He has produced an excellently organized piece of work with a thorough bibliography(and an index, which the Romanian edition lacked).The translator,a non-native speaker,has done a valiantjob with a difficulttext, although the Romanian titles in the critical apparatusshouldhave been left in the original. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies A. DRACE-FRANCIS University College London Clewing, Konrad. Staatlichkeit undnationale Identitdtsbildung: Dalmatien in Vormdrz und Revolution.Sudosteuropaische Arbeiten, I09. R. Oldenbourg, Mtinchen, 200I. 464 pp. Maps. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Indexes. C49.70. VENICE could not be unbuiltin a day. The revolutionaryeffectsof Napoleon's first great military campaign of I796 and the consequent I797 Treaty of Campo Formiowere dissolvedin the course of a year by the Vienna I8I4-15 settlement. Wiping a state like Venice off the map appeared easy enough. Militarilyit was, and the award to Austriaof so much of it certainlygave the French a more secure left flank in the eastern Mediterranean. Once the Egyptian adventure was over, however, matters of closer import led to no fewerthan fivemajorchanges involvingthe formerVenetianterritoriesbefore the post-Napoleonic peace got underway. Apart from the Ionian Islands, which were held not so snuglyunder Britishcontrol, the Venetian lands were reassembledunderAustriansovereignty,togetherwithwhathad, before I797, been the separate Lombardlands. The whole Vienna systemwas permeated I44 SEER, 8 ,I, I 2003 with what may be termed 'Opportunity with Albatross' zones. Austria had several such, involving leadership of the German Confederation, her Polish holdings,and, of course,herenlargedItalo-SlavicspheresincludingDalmatia. While being the 'Constable'of the GreatPowersforItalyand the Adriaticwas an enormousopportunity,itwas simultaneously,however,a potentialliability, the more so as Croatiawas not only a sub-kingdomof Hungary, but formed a substantialchunk of the Austrian 'MilitaryFrontier'with Turkey. Dalmatia was, moreover, a place of true cross-currents,with Italian, Croatian, and Magyarelements combining with Austrianand Germaninfluences. Wars and insurrectionsbefore and after Campo Formio had led to grave consequences for the overall Dalmatian and neighbouring economies. So much of the commercialandindustrialactivityconcomitantwiththeremaking of the Austriansystemof government constituteda 'catching-up',markedby an imperative need for infrastructuralharbour and road building. Yet the great truth was that the sailing ship, a scarcityof genuinely good roads, and an inadequate school system were perhaps three hugely vital features of the Dalmatian scene.Witha gargantuanbiographicalapparatusandan enormous and seemingly never-ending flow of detail making up this impressive and highly commendable volume, there is a distinct danger, not that we should missthe wood forthe trees,but thatwe shouldnot see the woods forthe forest, or maybe even fail to appreciate anything beyond it. Dalmatia's borders to the east are high and abrupt. For the period covered by this work, the lands beyond the north were often more readily reached by water than by land. Undeveloped Italian shores lay to the west, and wild Montenegrin and Albanian tracts beggared the south. While the maps provided are of a high order...