Modern Greek History Research Articles

Ilektra Apostolou: A Greek female resistance fighter and a heroine of the left

The Greek resistance fighter Ilektra Apostolou was executed on 26 July 1944, by the collaborationist security forces in Greece during the Second World War. Apostolou was a member of Kommounistiko Komma Ellados (KKE, Communist Party of Greece) and of Eniaia Panneladiki Organosi Newn (EPON, United Panhellenic Organisation of Youth), and was involved in pre-war antifascist action. During the resistance, she tried to pass on the mentality she had developed from this early involvement to young women in EPON and Lefteri Nea (LT, Free Young Woman): that women would be liberated only by actively participating in social struggles. Her biography is examined with a critical eye, taking into consideration that it was largely written after the war. This means that it not only provides a factual representation of Apostolou: it also functions as a lieu de memoire, a site of memory. The politics of memory influences how her biography is constructed. The second part focuses on the memorialisation of Apostolou, examining it through the lens of intersectionality. Identity criteria – such as gender, race, age and political identification – and the changing relative significance attributed to them are important both for shaping and understanding, memorialisa- tion processes. An intersectional approach seeks to reveal the hidden dimensions behind the memorialisation process. The last part focuses on Apostolou's post-war legacy and explores how her memorialisation was intertwined with political developments from 1944 to the present, with a particular focus on the contestation over Apostolou's memory between the right and the left at various points in modern Greek history. The article draws on a combination of secondary and primary sources, the main primary sources being those found in the Educational Centre of Charilaos Florakis (Archive of the Greek Communist Party) and the Contemporary Social History Archives (ASKI).

History and Cartography meet youth through Digital Technology

Through collaboration between the Onassis Foundation, the Historical Archive of the National Bank of Greece, and the Vocational Senior High School of Kamatero, an innovative digital project was developed that is both trendy and geared towards youth. This project showcases how a concept aimed at emphasizing the historical significance of the Capital of Greece inspired students to merge the disciplines of Computer Science and History, resulting in the creation of a 3D game on a popular platform. Additionally, this project demonstrates how Project-based learning can be achieved through collaborative and inquiry-based learning, real-world connections, initiative, and the satisfaction of creating something new. The impetus for the cooperation was the Panhellenic Student Competition of the Onassis Foundation, "Hack the Map: Imaginary Worlds." This competition invited schools to promote the cultural heritage of Greece, especially cartographic exhibits/evidence of the old days, through students' digital projects. The Historical Archive of the National Bank of Greece, which is a significant resource for studying Modern Greek History through primary sources, reached out to the Vocational Senior High School of Kamatero, located in the western sector of Athens, to work on a project. The school has an IT department, among other disciplines. In close collaboration, they developed a scenario that is about the civil war that occurred in Athens during the Interregnum period (October 1862-October 1863) after the dethronement of Greece's first king, Otto I. The scenario highlights the bloody events that took place between political factions in the city. In these conflicts, the implication of "Kyriakos," a dangerous leader of robbers, is a paradoxical historical event that stimulated the 2nd-grade Informatics students' imagination. Therefore, they created a 3D digital game entitled "Thieves and Policemen in the newly established Greek city-state: Iouniana." This presentation intends to demonstrate how the students' team of the Vocational School of Kamatero rebuilt Athenian monuments related to Kyriakos' action in a 3D environment; how they reconstructed the cartography of the capital's center during the second half of the 19th century based on these monuments and how they utilized digital resources (maps, photos, and texts) and books proposed by NBG Historical Archives; how a single player, via Kyriakos' persona, has to accomplish missions-battles and match parts of Athens' map of that era; and finally, how students narrated a historical event in a game constructed in Roblox platform inviting other young people to involve history knowledge.

The Poetics of Pain

Abstract Modern Greek poetry has been influenced by a tradition of lament that is still practiced in rural Greece, and by the tragic events of modern Greek history. In contrast to the elegiac tradition, laments and their women practitioners ascribe a positive value to pain. Male poets of the generation of 1930 made use of the imagery of folk lament in their poetry, and women poets of the second half of the 20th century addressed the dead directly as their village counterparts still do. The Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 dominated 20th-century modern Greek literature and drew on another traditional poetic form, the “lament for lost cities.” More recently, songwriters have mourned the political and economic tragedies of contemporary Greece in lyrics that seem much closer, in their expression of pain, to the tradition of lament than to elegy.

When Harvati became Mycenae (1916). Toponyms and nation building in early-20th century Greece

This article examines Greek perceptions and politics related to place names in the early 20th century. Although the tendency to rename places was already strong during the War of Independence in the 1820s, it finally became a systematic process in June 1909, when the “Toponyms of Greece Committee” was established and staffed by distinguished academics. The case of Harvati-Mycenae, though not unique in modern Greek history, presents an indicative example of the interaction between administrative expediency and national aspirations in the reshaping of the map of Greece. The history of this small village in Argolida [Argolída], which in 1916 was renamed from Harvati to Mycenae, is part of the long-lasting practice of changing names and adapting geography to the political and ideological necessities of the state. We argue that this process was an integral part of a ruling ideology that stressed continuity and kinship of the modern Greeks with an alleged glorious national past.

Editorial Introduction

Abstract There are few more challenging tests of fascist core-periphery topographies than the case of interwar Greece. Greece can claim no significant fascist movement in the interwar years; no significant fascist political party; and no dictatorial regime inspired by a genuinely revolutionary ultranationalist vision. In the last category, the only possible candidate, the 4th of August dictatorial regime headed by the retired general Ioannis Metaxas, was established late (1936) and lasted only for a few short years until the death of the dictator (January 1941). The contributions to this special issue on interwar Greece feature not only diverse aspects of the Metaxas regime but also offer broader perspectives on the ideological and political dynamics of fascism across the 1920s and 1930s. This special issue intends to build bridges between historical and sociological approaches; between the study of ideas and the analysis of policies; between contextual specificities and international trends; and, in the end, between recent historiographies of generic fascism and of modern Greek history. Collectively, the contributions also evince a plea to take the fascist experience and the potential for radical ruptures in interwar Greece more seriously.

NEUROSCIENCE AND ART: LIFE AND TIMES OF YANNOULIS CHALEPAS

The objective of this article is to highlight the bidirectional relationship between neuroscience and art in the life and times of the most preeminent sculptor in modern Greek history, Yannoulis Chalepas. Analysis of biographical sources and testimonies on the life and works of Yannoulis Chalepas was performed. Findings are discussed in relation to the neuropsychiatric maladies that he faced in his lifespan and their impact on his art. Yannoulis Chalepas' life and art are trichotomized in a charismatic, premorbid era (1851-1877), a prolonged, medieval, morbid period (1878-1917), and a transfigurative, post morbid era (1918-1938). The amalgamate of medical evidence suggests that Yannoulis Chalepas suffered from schizophrenia. That was reflected in his art through two distinct periods of artistic productivity and stylistic creativity. The bidirectional relationship between neuroscience and art in the history of humanity is also exemplified in the legacy of Yannoulis Chalepas. The borderland of artistic ingenuity with aberrant behavior, the misconceptions of neurocognitive disorders with psychosis along with their associated social stigma, the effect of artistic expression in the manifestation of psychiatric disease, as well as its healing and often transformative power are concepts that still tantalize equally scientists and artists around the globe.

The Historiography of the Greek Revolution of 1821: From Memoirs to National Scholarly History, 1821–1922

This study discusses the historiography of the Greek Revolution of 1821, what in Greek is often referred to as “Twenty-One” (Eikosiena) or the “Struggle” (Agon). Since 1821 constitutes the founding condition of the Greek state and autonomous existence of the Greek nation, it can be considered as the main historiographical field of modern Greek history. Throughout most of the twentieth century it represented a field of conflict between opposing historiographical but also ideological and political currents. Opposing ideological environments and collective identities formed different readings of Greek history in which the Greek Revolution played a central role. Its reading and interpretation served as the compass for reading and interpreting the whole process of modern Greek historical development. Opposing collectives also made selective use of the history of 1821 by searching for their “ancestors” in the revolutionary past; thus they formed historical genealogies through which they could claim authentic continuity with leading social groups and figures of the revolution. Consequently, 1821 obtained exemplary power. Accordingly each of its readings functioned as the starting point in shaping the political practice in the present. In other words, each and every reading of 1821 formed or supported directional guides of political practices in the present.

Who is the Historian? The Formation of Modern Greek History and the Historical Community in the Short Twentieth Century

The position of historian emerged as a distinct academic and professional field in Greece in the last quarter of the 20th century. In an attempt to explore this “delay” in comparison to Western European countries, this article offers an overview of the making of the field of modern Greek history during the twentieth century. Starting from the gradual acknowledgment of the autonomy of modern Greek history in relation to classical and Byzantine studies, the article traces its evolution and its close ties to political and social developments. The prevalence of historical positivism and philological principles, along with the dominance of the ideology of national continuity – the latter enriched through the postwar ideologies of national-mindedness and anticommunism – led to the persistence of the “historian-philologist” until 1974. The fall of the military dictatorship in 1974, which marked the end of the post-Greek Civil War era, was a catalyst for the flowering of modern Greek studies and the formation of a small but distinct community of historians, who regularly intervened in the public sphere.

‘We need to talk about the hegemony of the left’

Abstract This article seeks to explore the discursive rediscovery of the left menace and the ideological relevance between the far right and the right wing in Greece in times of political turmoil. Drawing on some historical aspects of modern Greece, first, I intend to explain the resurgence of Greece’s divided past. By emphasising references to Gramsci and the ‘hegemony of the left’, the article investigates the discursive construction of ingroups and outgroups on the basis of haunted memories of modern Greek history. By synthesising the Discourse Historical Approach and the concept of Aristotelian topos, I explicate how Gramsci has been re-utilised in an extreme right context by Greek far-right figures in order to stigmatise their ideological opponents. In a second step, my aim is to study the normalisation of political enmity by highlighting far-right discourses’ resemblance to New Democracy’s members’ rhetoric through references to Greek culture and economic imaginaries.

The British Council and Anglo-Greek Literary Interactions, 1945–1955 ed. by Peter Mackridge and David Ricks

Reviewed by: The British Council and Anglo-Greek Literary Interactions, 1945–1955 ed. by Peter Mackridge and David Ricks Foteini Dimirouli (bio) Peter Mackridge and David Ricks, editors, The British Council and Anglo-Greek Literary Interactions, 1945–1955. London: Taylor & Francis, 2018. Pp. xii + 262. 2 figures. Cloth $144.00. The entire course of modern Greek history has been subject to foreign interest and the tight grip of great power politics. The extent to which cultural institutions have played a role in buttressing exogenous political agendas has been a topic of intensifying research focus, at least since the term "soft power" entered our lexicon to refer to propaganda in its most subtle variety (16n10). The volume of collected essays The British Council and Anglo-Greek Literary Interactions, 1945–1955 partakes of this scholarship and comes as an indispensable complement to the growing number of studies that systematically engage with American cultural sponsorship in Greece during the Cold War, and especially since the country passed from the British to the American sphere of influence with the Truman doctrine in 1947. (Bournazos 2017; Lalaki 2018; Lialiouti 2018). The subject of the volume is the British Council, one of the pillars of British cultural diplomacy in Greece as this took shape after the 1930s. The Council's status fluctuated over the course of the twentieth century: founded in 1934, it ceased its activities during the Occupation, strengthened its position in the postwar period, and gradually declined due to the Cypriot armed struggle against the British in the 1950s. Its activities were largely educational: they revolved around English language teaching and intellectual exchange through sponsored visits abroad and scholarships, as well as milestone initiatives in the world of letters, such as the establishment of the Byron Chair of English Studies at the University of Athens in 1937 and the launch of the prestigious periodical Anglo-Greek Review in 1945. But, beyond its educational mission, the Council was connected to the overall British presence in Greece, and particularly to its efforts to promote British values and exert influence abroad during turbulent times. Edited by Peter Mackridge and David Ricks, the book consists of thirteen chapters, which vary in length as much as they do in focus. Whereas the British Council's preeminence in twentieth-century Greece is a topic that [End Page 460] recurs in earlier works on relations between Greece and Britain, this is the first study to adopt the Council as its subject matter. It brings together a mosaic of perspectives, ranging from long, in-depth pieces about the Council's history to short commentaries about overlooked or anecdotal aspects of its activity. Most chapters draw on archival material, correspondence, diaries, and literary works to reveal hitherto unknown information about the lives and activities of key members of the Council, often as a way to chart the changing relationship between Britain and Greece in the mid-twentieth century. Frequent allusions to ideas of Anglo-Greek "friendship" and the delicate fabric of interpersonal contacts between representatives of the two countries showcase the ways in which cultural bonds were orchestrated, crucially affected by the Greek political backdrop, integral to the intellectual networks that developed at the peak of Greek modernism, and framed by the internal workings of an institution that enjoyed cultural prominence. The book's main focus is the Council's most "fruitful" period (1945–1955, with its "Golden Age" during 1945–1947), during which close links were fostered between British officials and intellectuals and Greek writers and artists (3). In his introduction, Peter Mackridge demonstrates that the Anglo-Greek interactions galvanized by the Council were rooted in the interwar period, as major figures of the Generation of the 1930s—George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis, George Theotokas, George Katsimbalis—collaborated with the itinerants Rex Warner, Lawrence Durrell, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Robert Liddell to shape the contours of Greek modernism and, later, to provide impetus to the Council's "chief literary organ," the vastly influential Anglo-Greek Review. Following Mackridge's overview of the history of the modern Greek state, which is essential in contextualizing these cultural liaisons, the first chapter by Robert Holland also offers historical background and a critical analysis of the longstanding...

A new understanding of modern Greek history of education in light of the postmodern theoretical accounts about nationhood and identity

The aim of this paper is to present and explain the long and bitter contestation between two poles over the orientation, the aims and the content of education as well as the form of the Greek langu...

Narratives of Leaving and Returning to Homeland: The Example of Greek Brain Drainers Living in the UK

Narratives of why people migrate can be primarily associated with the study of migration in terms of people’s drivers of leaving and returning to homeland. Greek people have been very familiar with the idea of leaving as well as returning home, throughout modern Greek history; yet, due to the ongoing Greek crisis and prolonged austerity, a new migration wave has been formed associated with young professionals and scientists (brain drainers). This study utilises the qualitative collection and analysis of 31 narrative interviews contacted with Greek brain drainers currently living in the UK, in an attempt to examine, understand, and explain the drivers of leaving and returning to homeland. We argue that factors leading to the decision of leaving as well as the consideration (or hesitation) of returning are associated with (a) macro-factors relating to the socio-economic situation of the origin country (associated with the eliminating economic and personal development) as well as (b) powerful drivers of enduring cultural and social mentalities, associated with a mosaic of distinctive norms formed and established beyond the Greek crisis.

A Study on the Courses of Establishment Greek Democratic System in Connection with the European Community Accession(1961-1981): Focusing on the Role of Konstantinos Karamanlis

1832년 오스만 제국으로부터 독립한 이후, 그리스의 현대사는 민주제 확립을 위한 투쟁의 역사로 점철되어 왔다. 이후 그리스는 1967년부터 7년 동안 이어진 암울한 군부 독재 시기를 지나, 1974년에 이르러서야 비로소 성공적인 민주제 이행을 진행할 수 있게 되었다. 본고에서는 1974년 이후 그리스에 공고한 민주제가 확립될 수 있었던 장기적·외부적 요인으로써, 그리스와 유럽공동체의 상호관계에 주목하고자 한다. 무엇보다도 그리스는 1961년 유럽경제공동체와의 제휴협정인 ‘아테네 협정’을 시작으로 오랜 시간 동안 유럽통합에 적극적으로 참여해온 국가였고, 이와 같은 과정은 무엇보다도 그리스 내부의 민주제 확립과도 직접적으로 맞물려 있는 것이었다. 특히 이러한 민주제 확립과정에는 그리스의 정치가인 콘스탄티노스 카라만리스의 역할이 결정적인 요소로 작용했다. 그는 1961년의 아테네 협정과 1981년 그리스의 유럽공동체 정식 회원국 가입의 모든 과정을 기획하고 주도한 당사자일 뿐만 아라, 1974년부터 시작된 그리스 민주제 이행기의 총리를 역임한 인물이었기 때문이다. 이에 따라 본고에서는 장기적 관점과 단 계적 접근법을 통해, 카라만리스를 매개로 하여 전후 그리스의 유럽공동체 가입과 민주제 확립이 연동되어가는 과정과 그 의미를 살펴보고자 한다.Since its independence in 1832, modern Greek history can be explained in the process of struggle for the establishment of a democratic system. Greece could transfer to a democratic system successfully in 1974 after the ages of military dictatorship for 7 years. This paper aims to see long-standing and external factors to the establishment of a democratic system in Greece from 1961 to 1981, especially on the relationship between Greece and European Community. Since the Athens Agreement in 1961, Greece had participated in the European integration actively and this process was interlinked with the establishment of the internal democratic system. And also, the Greek politician Konstantinos Karamanlis played a crucial role in this process. Because he was the person who takes lead not only the Athens Agreement in 1961 but also Greece s full EC membership in 1981. Besides, he was prime minister of Greece in the period of a democratic transition 1974-1975. Therefore, with a long-term perspective and phased approach, it will analyze the meaning of establishment Greek democratic system with the courses of Greek participation in European integration from 1961 to 1981.

Formal and Informal Education during the Rise of Greek Nationalism: Learning To Be Greek by Theodore G. Zervas

Reviewed by: Formal and Informal Education during the Rise of Greek Nationalism: Learning To Be Greek by Theodore G. Zervas Alex R. Tipei (bio) Theodore G. Zervas, Formal and Informal Education during the Rise of Greek Nationalism: Learning To Be Greek. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2017. Pp. vii + 186. Cloth $109.99. Over the last 50 years, scholars have produced a rich and nuanced literature on the crucial role that education, particularly popular instruction, played in the construction of national identities in Europe and around the world. Theodore G. Zervas’s book, Formal and Informal Education during the Rise of Greek Nationalism: Learning To Be Greek, promises to contribute to this field by exploring how the Greek state mobilized and shaped what children in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century learned not only in school, but in their homes and communities, as well. Unfortunately, Zervas’s book does not quite deliver. Zervas divides his study into five thematic chapters framed by an introduction and conclusion. He begins with a survey of family and community life (from the village to minority ethnolinguistic groups) and the place of childhood in Greek society around the turn of the twentieth century. In the following three chapters, he discusses schools and textbooks, children’s literature, and folk practices as sites of formal and informal education. The final chapter offers a series of biographical vignettes of Greek cultural figures meant to showcase how informal learning shaped them as children. From the start, Zervas struggles with the very concepts that anchor his study: nationalism and informal education. He never clearly articulates the coordinates of the Greek identity that the state promoted, nor does he directly link it to the content of either formal or informal instruction. While we get a glimpse of the contours of Greekness from allusions to the work of others, notably Michael Herzfeld (115), most of what we learn comes from vague statements. For example, Zervas writes that “Greece was hesitant in welcoming a more Western and secular society and Greek Orthodox Christianity was seen as crucial to maintaining a Greek cultural identity” (65). He leaves us to wonder to what or whom “Greece” refers here—political leaders? teachers? peasants?—as well as what these Western values were, and how they ran counter to Orthodoxy. More generally, Zervas tends to elide Orthodoxy and national identity without clarifying what sets apart the Greek case. The closest to a sketch of Greekness at the time is the claim: “[Today] it is easy . . . to define what it means to be Greek. We speak Greek, we live in Greece, we are Greek Orthodox (at least the majority of us are), and our history and culture dates back to ancient Greece” (15). This essentialized definition of contemporary [End Page 205] Greek identity points to the most troubling aspect of Zervas’s book—the reproduction of nationalist tropes. While Zervas makes it known he has read key works on nationalism (Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner, Eric Hobsbawm), his study fails to problematize national identities, histories, and ideologies as historical-political constructions. Already in his preface, Zervas imagines his own Greek ancestry extending back as an unbroken line to 7000 BCE (vii). He contends, in contradiction to a wealth of studies, that customs and traditions—from when to lead a dance to how to serve coffee—were uniform across Greece (12) and rearticulates the figure of the timeless peasant, positing that rural life in postin-dependence Greece not only continued to resemble the entirety of the Ottoman period (1453–1821) but had often changed little “since late Byzantine times (1000–1400)” (31–32). Discussing its ethnolinguistic diversity, he calls Thessaloniki “an old relic from Greece’s Ottoman past” (40), without noting that for most of the period under consideration (1880–1930), the city was actually part of the Ottoman Empire; it only became Greek in 1913. Similarly, his brief note of educational institutions in Smyrna and other parts of Anatolia lacks any recognition of the historical or political context (70)—neglecting to nuance how Greek identity may have developed differently in the diaspora or to inform readers unfamiliar with Modern Greek history that these locales were outside the reach of the...

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Casting the Spotlight on Modern Greek History through Theater

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Casting the Spotlight on Modern Greek History through Theater

The historiography of the Greek Diaspora and migration in the twentieth century

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the literature on the Greek diaspora and migration during the twentieth century. In others words, this study attempts to offer a historiographical approach, focusing mainly on Greek-language literature and, in particular, on landmark works in Greek migration studies. Anyone attempting to write about the history of Greek migration is faced with a daunting task, considering that a series of individual concepts must be clarified and positioned in space and time. Migration in modern Greek history is not a phenomenon exclusive to the twentieth century; the permanent presence of Greeks in central Europe from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries incited the interest of a significant number of Greek historiographers in the twentieth century. In this context, for instance, the use during the twentieth century in the Greek-language literature of terms such as apodimos, apoikia, paroikia or repatriation reflects ruptures and continuities and illuminates the political changes in Greek society and the broader ideological shift in socials sciences. At the same time, the early post-junta period marked not only a systematic shift towards the study of the Greek diaspora and migration, but also a differentiation in its approach by entering into continuous dialogue with other disciplines. However, because diaspora and migration studies is now an interdisciplinary field, an overall analysis of it lies beyond the scope of this work.

The Church of Greece under Axis Occupation by Panteleymon Anastasakis (review)

The Church of Greece under Axis Occupation. By Panteleymon Anastasakis. [World War II: The Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension.] (New York: Fordham University Press. 2015. Pp. xiv, 349. $55.00. ISBN 978-0-8232-6199-4.)The Nazi occupation of several European countries has remained a topic of interest to scholars, including the role played by the various Christian churches during this period. In his monograph, Panteleymon Anastasakis examines thoroughly the Orthodox Church in Greece, a country occupied by Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria from 1941 to 1944. This critical period in modern Greek history left a strong mark on subsequent generations, particularly because of the ensuing bloody civil war (1946-49) between communist partisans and pro-Western government forces.Anastasakis has placed particular emphasis on the connection among church, state, and nation (chapter 1). Under Axis occupation, this became most evident in the person of Archbishop Damaskinos (Papandreou), who even undertook political functions as regent to fill the political vacuum, guarantee stability, and smooth transition (chapter 2). In addition, Anastasakis explores the growing societal role of the church and its internal problems preceding the Axis occupation (chapter 3); its tenuous and difficult relationship with the Axis (especially German) authorities (chapter 4); its multiple activities to assist the afflicted population (chapters 5 and 6); its policies in the Bulgarian-occupied area of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace; its relationship with Greek Jews and the Holocaust (chapter 7); and the involvement of the clergy in the armed resistance, spearheaded by the communist-led National Liberation Front (chapter 8). In the epilogue, the author briefly shows the role of the church after the liberation from Axis occupation and the escalation of the whole situation into civil war. Was the church the only institution capable of holding the Greek people and society together during World War II? The author seems to argue in this direction, although without any hagiographical intention. This is perhaps a very strong argument that does not exactly reflect the polarized Greek situation at the time, especially with regard to the communists, who believed the church was an ally of the corrupt old establishment. This is not, however, to deny that the church as a whole was quite active, visible, and utterly important as a provider of manifold help during the Axis occupation for the nation, including problems that normally lie outside the ecclesiastical realm. …

Modern Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know by Stathis N. Kalyvas

Reviewed by: Modern Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know by Stathis N. Kalyvas Van Coufoudakis (bio) Stathis N. Kalyvas, Modern Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press. 2015. Pp. xii + 242. Cloth $16.95. Stathis Kalyvas is the Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is also known to Greek audiences for his columns in Sunday papers. This book was published around the time of the electoral victory of SYRIZA (Συνασπισμός της Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς, Coalition of Radical Left) in January 2015 and consequently only marginally addresses the rise of SYRIZA or its politics. The author’s treatment of Golden Dawn is equally superficial. The author describes his book as an “essay of historical interpretation” rather than a “comprehensive and detailed history book” (xi). The book attempts to show how the present crisis fits in the context of Modern Greek history. In seven brief chapters, it discusses nearly 200 years of postindependence Greek history. Subheadings divide each chapter with titles like “How Was the New State Built,” “What Was the Anatolian Disaster,” and “What Caused the 1967 Coup.” Most footnotes refer to secondary sources. The book has no bibliography other than some references presented as “Suggestions for Further Reading.” Given the format of the book, Kalyvas’s work is replete with generalizations about Greek politics, society, and foreign policy that may be adequate for a reader unfamiliar with Greece, but not for the specialist. Some of these generalizations are likely to reinforce stereotypes about Greece rather than revise them. The author attempts to make sense of Modern Greek history along broad themes, such as nationalism, state building, modernization, populism, democracy, and autocracy. He applies contemporary terminology, such as “failed states” (38), to explain past events and current problems. According to the author, Greece is a largely successful late modernizer, whose history is characterized by almost epic disasters of which the 2009 crisis is the latest. Modern history shows Greece’s “capacity to achieve positive outcomes out of ambitious, often disastrous, projects … a case of an early, highly ambitious, creative, incomplete and imperfect—but overall quite successful—effort by an under endowed upstart to catch up with the most advanced nations” (13). The book identifies seven major boom, bust, and bailout cycles in Modern Greek history. These cycles started with highly ambitious projects intended to transcend the twin constraints of history and geography in the belief that Greece would become a normal Western country (196). The final chapter on Greece’s 2009 crisis has yet to be written. Greece’s problems led to various forms of foreign interventions, which, according to the author, proved favorable for the country. These interventions, however, [End Page 416] have not been perceived in this manner in Greece and have contributed to the love/hate relationship between Greece, Western Europe, and the United States. There were many “firsts” (23) in the Greek national project, according to Kalyvas. It was the first successful nationalist uprising in the Ottoman Empire that also gave rise to the first modern humanitarian intervention (Navarino). Greeks were able to play up the romantic connection of Ancient to Modern Greece (which the author rejects) and were able to align their interests with those of influential foreign powers throughout Modern Greek history. Even though Greece may have been born as a “failed state” (38), it addressed successfully—and ahead of other states in Western Europe—issues such as universal male suffrage, illiteracy, state control of religion, conscription, and land reform. Despite the immense economic, social, and political cost of the Anatolian disaster, Greece successfully integrated its displaced nationals, who turned out to be a boon to the country. The tragic and legally sanctioned ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of World War I also produced ethnically homogeneous states in the region, reducing the threat of interstate conflict. Post-junta Greece became a fully competitive democracy with peaceful political transitions between New Democracy and PASOK (Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panhellenic Socialist Movement), a clear indication of the maturity and consolidation of the political system. However, opportunities for political and economic reform were missed. PASOK is largely blamed for relying on populist politics, the misuse of bureaucracy, legal inefficiency, and the decline of the educational system at all levels...

Anti-Venizelist criticism of Venizelos' policy during the Balkan Wars (1912‒13)

AbstractAlthough the Balkan Wars are regarded as a defining moment in modern Greek history that led to the expansion of Greek territory, they also constitute an important chapter in the history of internal Greek politics: the Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos consolidated his position as the country's most competent politician; the Palace, at the head of the victorious Greek army, regained much of its lost prestige after the unsuccessful Greco–Turkish war of 1897; and most importantly, the old parties began to function as a united front against Venizelos. This reaction was majorly triggered by Venizelos' handling of the country's foreign affairs in 1912‒13. The anti-Venizelists' rhetoric against Venizelos diplomacy invested heavily in tradition and the role of the king and was a harbinger of the national schism of 1915‒16.

Europe in modern Greek history

'Europe', 'Europeanness' and 'European' have been important themes in the history of modern Greece, from the establishment of the new state in 1832 to the sovereign debt crisis of 2010. 'Europe' has served as key reference points in questions of identity, progress, capability, legitimation and strategic interest. Indeed, few nations have experienced 'Europe' with such intensity, reacted with so much angst, and witnessed effects of such consequence. Now, in the context of two financial bail- outs and the imposition of tough austerity measures, it is the 'euro-zone' that is shaking the Greek economy, state and society to its roots. This turmoil needs to be understood in the context of a sequence of questions and doubts that encompass arts and politics, social integration and economic development. This volume addresses the complexity of Greece's relationship with 'Europe' - examining its manifestations in culture, politics, society, foreign policy and the economy. It deepens our knowledge not only of how modern Greece has reached this point, but also of what Europe is, what it represents, how it may impact domestically, and why it may be viewed differently.