The Greek Fire

The Greek Fire examines the United States' early global influence as the fledgling nation that inserted itself in conflicts that were oceans away. Maureen Connors Santelli focuses on the American fascination with and involvement in the Greek Revolution in the 1820s and 1830s. That nationalist movement incited an American philhellenic movement that pushed the borders of US interests into the eastern Mediterranean and infused a global perspective into domestic conversations concerning freedom and reform.

Perceiving strong cultural, intellectual, and racial ties with Greece, American men and women identified Greece as the seedbed of American democracy and a crucial source of American values. From Maryland to Missouri and Maine to Georgia, grassroots organizations sent men, money, and supplies to aid the Greeks. Defending the modern Greeks from Turkish slavery and oppression was an issue on which northerners and southerners agreed. Philhellenes, often led by women, joined efforts with benevolence and missionary groups and together they promoted humanitarianism, education reform, and evangelism. Public pressure on the US Congress, however, did not result in intervention on behalf of the Greeks. Commercial interests convinced US officials, who wished to cultivate commercial ties with the Ottomans, to remain out of the conflict.

The Greek Fire analyzes the role of Americans in the Greek Revolution and the aftermath of US involvement. In doing so, Santelli revises understandings of US involvement in foreign affairs, and she shows how diplomacy developed at the same time as Americans were learning what it meant to be a country, and what that country stood for.

Maureen Connors Santelli is an Associate Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College. Follow her on X @MECSantelli.

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 rebellion in America to consider the trans-imperial and geopolitical dimensions of this episode. Santelli, in particular, should be applauded for linking the reception of the Greek revolution in the United States to its quest for commercial expansion in the Near East.

Highly recommended.

Emily Conroy-Krutz, Michigan State University, author of Christian Imperialism:

The Greek Fire offers a fascinating look at American philhellenism. As with the French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions, the Greek Revolution became an occasion for Americans to reinterpret the legacy of their own revolution. Santelli reveals how the Greek Revolution prompted all Americans to think anew about what it meant to be an American on the world stage and to reexamine domestic political issues including slavery and women's rights from a new angle.

W. Caleb McDaniel, Rice University, author of The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery:

The Greek Fire is an excellent example of the growing 'global' turn in history of the early republic, and also makes an important contribution to our understanding of the rise of international humanitarianism. Clearly written and well-researched, it deserves a wide readership.