The Edinburgh History of the Greeks
A new and innovative account of modern Greek history covering the last 100 years
- Draws on recent research on popular culture, social memory and other areas of innovative analysis that have not yet been incorporated into any histories of modern Greece
- Details the full significance of the changing experiences of women throughout the century
- Incorporates the history of Cyprus and the experiences of Greek communities in the diaspora, whose histories were indelibly tied with the Greek nation
This volume deals with a tumultuous yet transformative era in Greek history. During the twentieth century, most Greeks abandoned the countryside for the cities or the expanding global diaspora. Greek and Cypriot societies became urbanised, secularised and more ‘western’. Since the Balkan Wars they have also lurched from crisis to crisis, having experienced two destructive war decades (1912–1922 and 1940–1949), the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the economic crises of the 2010s.
Focusing on the relationship between state and society, as well as on Greeks’ place in the wider world, this book considers how Greeks have engaged with global change and the impact of international factors on their lives.
An examination of the history of the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire
Shortlisted for the 2015 London Hellenic PrizeThe period of Ottoman rule in Greek history has undergone a dramatic reassessment in recent years. Long reviled as four hundred years of unrelieved slavery and barbarity ('the Turkish yoke'), a new generation of scholars, based mainly but not exclusively in Greece, is rejecting this view in favour of a more nuanced picture of the Greek experience in the Ottoman Empire.
This volume considers this new scholarship, most of it in Greek, and makes it accessible for the first time to a wider audience. Molly Greene also discusses the changing views of the Ottoman Empire more generally and assesses what this changing historiography can tell us about this period in Greek history.
The book begins with the conventional date of 1453, the fall of Constantinople, and includes debates over the extent to which 1453 represented a real break with the past. The volume ends with the Russo-Ottoman War of 1768-1774, which brought to an end the relative peace and stability of the Ottoman eighteenth century and helped to usher in the nationalist movements in the region.
- Key features:
- Covers the period from the arrival of Evrenos Bey in Thessaly in 1400 through to 1770
- Depicts a Greek world that is very different, both from the well-known contours of Greek antiquity as well as from the modern nation-state of Greece
- Includes illustrations, maps, a timeline and a further reading section
- Major Themes:
- the fate of the 1,000-year Byzantine heritage
- the millet system and Ottoman society
- the connections between the Greek population and other members of Ottoman society
- the Greeks in a European context
Traces the rich social, cultural, economic and political history of the Greeks from 1768 to 1913
Shortlisted for the 2015 London Hellenic PrizeOften referred to as the ‘Long Nineteenth Century,’ this period witnessed the establishment of a Greek nation-state which had a profound impact on the Greeks everywhere.
Innovatively situating the story of the Greeks into a broader Ottoman and Mediterranean context, Thomas Gallant presents the most in-depth exploration of Greek society and culture available in any language. This is a substantive and original contribution to the study of the Greek people during the Modern period.
Key features:
- An interdisciplinary approach bridges history, anthropology and archaeology
- Emphasises social history, including an in-depth discussion of Greek rural society and economy
- Brings Greek history and Ottoman history into dialogue in a way that hasn’t been done before
- Includes over 70 figures – maps, illustrations, tables and line drawings – which illustrate the key aspects of Greek social life
A completely new approach to the history of Greece during the early Middle Ages
Winner of the Nicolae Iorga prize of the Romanian Academy, 2013This volume traces the social, economic and political history of the Greeks between 500 and 1050. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach and uses archaeological evidence, as well as coins and seals, fiscal documents, medieval chronicles, and hagiographic literature to examine the development of Greek culture in the early medieval period. Several themes provide the foundation for this volume and run through the chapters; these include the Balkan context, the Social Role of the Army and the Onset of Economic Growth. Special attention is paid to the size of the economy in early medieval Greece. Both the social and the economic are privileged and analyzed together as integrally connected spheres of life, thus filling a major gap in existing literature on this period.
