The Forgotten Heroes of the Balkan Wars: Greek-Americans and Philhellenes, 1912–1913 by Peter S. Giakoumis

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Forgotten Heroes of the Balkan Wars: Greek-Americans and Philhellenes, 1912–1913 by Peter S. Giakoumis Fevronia K. Soumakis (bio) Peter S. Giakoumis, The Forgotten Heroes of the Balkan Wars: Greek-Americans and Philhellenes, 1912–1913. Rochester, NY: Starry Night Publishing, 2020. Pp. iii + 686. 18 illustrations. Paper $24.00. Peter S. Giakoumis’s The Forgotten Heroes of the Balkan Wars: Greek-Americans andPhilhellenes, 1912–1913 is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on the history of Greek America. Giakoumis sheds light on the little-known contributions of Greek American soldiers who returned to Greece to [End Page 469] fight in the Balkan Wars between 1912 and 1913. At the conclusion of those wars, the Greek kingdom nearly doubled in size and population through the incorporation of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Epirus, Crete, and the eastern Aegean islands. In his 1964 history The Greeks in the United States, Theodore Saloutos describes the events leading up to the mobilization of approximately 45,000 men who returned to Greece to fight (Saloutos 1964, 96–117). Giakoumis expands upon Saloutos’s work by situating Greek American volunteers and philhellene supporters within the broader political and military context of the Balkan Wars. Giakoumis did not set out to write a monograph. Rather, his purpose was to uncover the voices and experiences of Greek American soldiers during the war. In doing so, he relies on extensive documentation: his book is a compilation of reprinted newspaper articles, photographs, reports, eyewitness accounts, memoirs, and quotations from secondary sources. The author brings to life the “forgotten heroes” of Greek immigrant life as well as the unfolding social and political events in Greece and the United States. The history of the soldiers’ involvement in the Balkan Wars is told overwhelmingly through primary source documents and historical timelines. The book is divided into eight chapters with eight appendices that comprise nearly one-quarter of the book. The first chapter presents newspaper excerpts that detail world events leading up to the Balkan Wars. In the second chapter, the author explores Greek communal life in the United States between 1900 and 1913. Spyros Matsoukas, “the inspired apostle and patriotic missionary” figures prominently in the Greek-language newspapers: Matsoukas arrived in the United States from Greece in 1909 and embarked on an ambitious fund-raising tour that raised thousands of dollars toward the “regeneration and rehabilitation” of Greece, including the purchase of a battleship (35). In the same year, the first Greek American military clubs were established in major cities in anticipation of an impending war with Ottoman Turkey. These military units were made up of Greek military veterans as well as those without prior military training. They received ample coverage in the American press, as for instance on 9 October 1910, when the St. Louis Dispatch ran the headline “Greeks Arming and Drilling in St. Louis, Strange New Colony Ready to Attack Turkey—Subscribe for a Battleship—Greeks all over Southwest Co-Operate” (40). In addition to showcasing the activities of military units as reported by Greek-language and other American newspapers, Giakoumis rightly focuses on the important work of the Panhellenic Union in mobilizing Greek American volunteers during the Balkan Wars. The Union was established in New York in 1907 as a mutual benefit society and a centralized vehicle for uniting [End Page 470] and harnessing the financial capacities of Greek immigrants. The remainder of chapter 2 captures Greek immigrant life in many parts of the United States through the lens of the American press, focusing in particular on Greek Americans’ initial settlement, establishment of businesses and churches, and other important activities. Giakoumis asserts that, as war loomed on the horizon, there were three notable components that defined the Greek American response: “1. They raised over $400,000 USD. 2. Greek-American soldiers set out to fight in the war, even though a fair number of them did not have prior military service. 3. Most of them returned to the U.S. after the war” (103). On 17 September 1912 the Greek government issued mobilization instructions ordering Greek veterans, reservists, and men of military age to return to Greece to fight. Many Greeks in the United States...