The origins of an attitude. On the intellectual profile, political ideas and activity of the “Foişoara Telegrafului Român”’s editors

The origins of an attitude. On the intellectual profile, political ideas and activity of the “Foişoara Telegrafului Român”’s editors

 

Author: Vlad POPOVICI
Keywords: elites, Transylvania, journalism, intellectual profile, ideology.

The eighth decade of the 19th century marked the political debut of a new generation of Transylvanian intellectuals, educated in universities from Germany, Austria and Hungary. These young men became active in the political life after 1884 and had been known as Tribunists since. But during the ’70s, the future politicians were still undergoing their training years in journalism, editing “Foişoara Telegrafului Român”. The current study analyses their educational paths and bookish horizons, presenting and explaining the cultural bases that shaped their future political ideology and behaviour. Along with a few introductive biographies, we have considered it proper to annex a list of writings certainly read by them, in order to outline their bibliographic and intellectual background. The conclusions of the research emphasize the connection between their university education, the Junimist model taken upon and the ideas expressed in their first ideological writings, offering as well an explanation for the aggressiveness that characterized their post-1884 political ascension.