The Greek Fire: American-Ottoman Relations and Democratic Fervor in the Age of Revolutions by Maureen Connors Santelli, and: Newest Born of Nations: European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy by Ann L. Tucker

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Greek Fire: American-Ottoman Relations and Democratic Fervor in the Age of Revolutions by Maureen Connors Santelli, and: Newest Born of Nations: European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy by Ann L. Tucker Jay Sexton (bio) Greek rebellion, Nationalist movements, Independence, European revolutions The Greek Fire: American-Ottoman Relations and Democratic Fervor in the Age of Revolutions. By Maureen Connors Santelli. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020. Pp. 264. Cloth, $45.00.) Newest Born of Nations: European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy. By Ann L. Tucker. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020. Pp. 272. Cloth, $45.00.) These two books belong to the fast-growing second generation of scholarship from the U.S. global turn. The first generation of this historiography, which often took the form of call-to-arms essays and overview sketches, sought to establish the significance of cross-border phenomenon to U.S. history. Second-generation scholarship, such as these two books under review, get on with the job of re-interpreting national history through a cosmopolitan lens. Under the microscope in these two fine studies are the contested responses of Americans to revolutions in Europe. Maureen Connors Santelli shows that the struggle for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s became a popular sensation in America. Initially taking its cue from the romantic Philhellenism of Lord Byron, what contemporaries called "the Greek fire" quickly spread throughout the early republic, in the process taking a distinctive American form. Sympathy for the Greeks in the United States was widespread, not least because American observers came to see the rebellion in relation to their own revolution against imperial oppression in 1776. The Greek cause ignited interest from across the social spectrum: Elite intellectuals like Harvard's first professor of Greek literature Edward Everett might have been the most well-known American Philhellenes, but Santelli's meticulous research unearths significant interest in the Greek cause from those of all social ranks and geographic regions. It is here that the book takes an interesting turn, as we learn how the rhetoric and networks of the "Greek fire" eventually came to be repurposed by abolitionist activists, including David Walker and William Lloyd Garrison, as well as early advocates of women's rights. It is a testament to the range of The Greek Fire that Santelli extends her analysis beyond the transnational story of the reception of the Greek [End Page 165] rebellion in America to consider the trans-imperial and geopolitical dimensions of this episode. Here, the domestic "Greek fire" presented problems to American commercial interests and diplomats, who sought access to the Black Sea and a commercial agreement with the Ottoman state. This was the unfolding of a different legacy of the American Revolution than that of simply equating the Greek rebels with the American Founding Fathers. The United States zealously attempted to break down Ottoman commercial barriers, to secure access to markets, and to achieve parity with the British and European empires in the region. Ottoman officials were open to cutting some type of deal with the United States, but not if the nation supported the insurgent Greeks. The Monroe administration was of two minds about how to proceed, with the president sympathetic to the Greeks and Secretary of State Adams inclined to prioritize a commercial agreement with the Ottomans, building on the informal U.S. commercial bridgehead that had been established in Smyrna. In the end, officials pursued a compromise policy: The U.S. state would not recognize Greek independence but would do nothing to inhibit legal actions of private groups of American Philhellenes, who redoubled efforts to extend humanitarian aid to the struggling Greek rebels. As with so many compromise policies, the result alienated both sides—with Greek rebels disappointed in the lack of U.S. support and Ottoman officials complaining of the allegedly pro-Greek tilt of U.S. policy. Nonetheless, the United States eventually saw its desired objectives come to fruition. By the early 1830s, the United States had a commercial treaty with the Ottoman Empire, and Greece had earned its independence (though Santelli acknowledges that this outcome had little to do with U.S. private...