Neagu Djuvara

Neagu Djuvara
Djuvara in November 2008
Born	(1916-08-31) August 31, 1916 (age 100) Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
Occupation	Writer, historian, philosopher, journalist, diplomat

Neagu Djuvara (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈne̯aɡu d͡ʒjuˈvara]; born August 31, 1916) is a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist and diplomat.

A native of Bucharest, he is descended from an aristocratic Aromanian family. His father, Marcel, a graduate of the Technical University of Berlin and a Captain in the Romanian Royal Army's Engineer Corps, died of Spanish flu in 1918; his mother, Tinca, was the last descendant of the Gradişteanu family of boyar origins (according to Djuvara, she was related to all boyar families in Wallachia). Djuvara's uncles Trandafir and Alexandru Djuvara were notable public figures. Djuvara was born during World War I; as an infant, he was taken by his family into refuge in Iaşi after the occupation of southern Romania by the Central Powers, and then, through Imperial Russia, into Belgium (where Trandafir Djuvara was Minister Plenipotentiary).

He attended lycée in Nice, France, and graduated in Letters (1937) and Law (1940) from the University of Paris (his Law thesis dealt with the antisemitic legislation passed by the governments of King Carol II in Romania). Djuvara later stated that, at the time, his political sympathies veered towards the far right: he became a supporter of the Romanian fascist movement, the Iron Guard, and took part in the February 1934 riot against the French Radical-Socialist government of Édouard Daladier.