Lucian Boia’s book demonstrates how history can be “rewritten” in a way that turns it into a tool, rather than a study. As such, history becomes a means to an end, whether that end is to support feelings of nationalism or to justify the reign of a regime. Boia distinguishes between the realities of history, and the way history in Romania has been portrayed in order to fit the goals of nationalism, patriotism, and justification for the Communist regime. However, there are times when Boia puts too much emphasis on looking at Romanian historiography itself from a present day perspective, criticizing the work of the historians. Rather, it seems the value of studies like this one, which Boia does also touch on, comes in that looking at a particular country’s scholarly work and the debates surrounding them gives us a better idea as to the social issues of the time and to what extent they permeated people’s mindsets. While the idea that Romanians “do not even know their own history” is disturbing (and certainly debatable), from the search for a definition of Romanian identity to the struggles under the communist regime, views and arguments about history itself are intensely illuminating.