Roland Clark's book 'Holy Legionary Youth: Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania' (Cornell, 2015) has won the Society for Romanian Studies Fourth Biennial Book Prize, awarded to the best new academic book on a Romanian topic published in English in 2015 and 2016.
Described by reviewers as ‘a truly remarkable book’, ‘highly interdisciplinary, analytically comprehensive, and informed by a prodigious array of both primary sources and secondary literature’ and ‘the richest study we have of Romanian fascism’, Dr Clark’s book was based on extensive archival research, including in the Romanian secret police files.
He has produced a fascinating account of the Legion of the Archangel Michael, one of the largest and most enduring fascist movements in interwar Europe. In particular, he explores what membership of this organisation meant to those young Romanian men and women who joined.