Despite the criticism of his peers and the inattention of his successors, Alexandru Xenopol provided Romanian nationalistic historiography with a greater measure of respectability, especially with the general public. By the time of WWI a strong sense of national identity had become entrenched as an intellectually respectable mentality among Romania s literate classes. This book examines Xenopol s participation in the creation of this mentality in Romania during decades that were crucial to the development of institutionalized intellectual life and and educted behaviour in that country. "