Initially, Vladimir Tismăneanu had planned to write a review of Romanian history covering the entire modern period, before deciding to concentrate on a more limited subject. Part of the volume relies on never-before published documents to which he had gained access as a young man, through his family connections. It also incorporates his thoughts on the communist legacy in Romania, and in particular his belief that the modified communist dogma endured as a force in Romanian politics even during the post-1989 period. Cioroianu reviews the high praise earned by the volume throughout the Romanian intellectual and educational environments, as "all the appreciations a history volume could have expected". American historian Robert C. Tucker calls it "the definitive work on Romanian communism", and Stanomir "a monument of erudition and laconicism".