Book Discussion: Vacationing in Dictatorships: International Tourism in Socialist Romania and Franco's Spain, by Adelina Stefan

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable will discuss Adelina Stefan's book, "Vacationing in Dictatorships: International Tourism in Socialist Romania and Franco's Spain" published with Cornell University Press in December 2024. The book examines the political effects of international tourism in socialist Romania and Francoist Spain in the postwar era. Despite sharp economic and political differences between the two dictatorial regimes at the start of the Cold War, significant similarities existed as both states took advantage of international tourism to improve their image abroad and pursued processes of economic modernization to acquire hard currencies. By the end of the 1970s though, the two countries achieved rather different results in terms of tourism development, despite the fact that both shared many features in the 1940s and 1950s.
Drawing on their expertise in Romanian, Eastern European and Soviet studies the participants will discuss the book's contribution and the role of comparative studies to the field of tourism and consumption in Eastern Europe.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Raluca Cernahoschi, Bates College

Roundtable Speakers

• Malgorzata Fidelis, U of Illinois at Chicago

• Alessandro Iandolo, U College London (UK)

• James Koranyi, U of Durham (UK)

• Jill Massino, UNC at Charlotte

• Oana Adelina Stefan, U of Ostrava (Czech Republic)