Nicolae Iorga: A Biography

The Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga played a critical role in the history of his country for more than fifty years until his tragic death in 1940. The author of more than 1,200 books and 20,000 articles, Iorga was one of the most prolific scholars of all time. In recognition of his academic achievements, Iorga was made a member of the Romanian, French, Yugoslav, and Polish academies, and received honorary doctorates from universities around the world.

Iorga was also deeply involved in the political life of Romania throughout the first four decades of the twentieth century, one of the most complex and important periods in his country’s history. This book, the first comprehensive biography of one of the most important European cultural and political personalities of the first half of the twentieth century, considers Iorga not only as a historian, politician, journalist, literary critic, playwright, writer, poet, and linguist, but also as an orator, teacher, and last but not least, a human being.

Written by Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, a leading American scholar, and based on archival sources and family documents, this book is the first biography to present a complete portrait of the world-renowned historian Nicolae Iorga.

Nicolae Iorga is one of the most outstanding intellectual figures - if not, as I am firmly convinced, the outstanding personality. - of the modern world. Indeed, if Nicolae Iorga hailed from a large country, instead of a small one, there is no doubt that he would have been acclaimed. - John L. Gerig, Columbia University