The Time of the Gypsies

by Michael Stewart, Michael Stewart, Michael Stewart

Book Overview

HIS IS A STUDY OF HOW some of the most marginal and exploited people that exist can imagine themselves to be princes of the world.During the past two hundred years the Gypsies of Eastern Europe have faced near enslavement by land owners, the physical and moral onslaught of the Nazi holocaust, the fundamental challenge to their central values from the Communist state, and the violent discrimination and dislocation caused by the return to capitalism...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813331994
• ISBN13: 9780813331997
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An excellent book for understanding the Rom as people

I have just finished reading The Time of the Gypsies with great interest. I lived in Hungary for two years and my knowledge of the Hungarian Gypsies (Rom) was based entirely on a Magyar perspective. After returning to the US I read Angus Fraser's book The Gypsies, which was a good introduction to contemporary Western scholarship concerning the Rom.What Fraser's book left out was an understanding of how the Rom viewed themselves and how their self-concept was defined. The present volume fills that gap. It has caused me to consider the varying viewpoints of Magyars and Rom and how conflicting viewpoints lead to radically different interpretations of the economic and social activities of the Rom. Many stories I heard from Magyars now "make sense" because I can see what the other side of the story was.The Time of the Gypsies does an excellent job of showing the very real roots of conflicts between Rom and other people without either vilifying or romanticising either side. Although not aimed at mending the rifts between the Rom and non-Rom the book does an excellent job of promoting the mutual understanding and recognition that is needed to prevent further discord.