For many, "Greece" is synonymous with "ancient Greece," the civilization
that gave us much that defines Western culture today. But, how did
Greece come to be so powerfully attached to the legacy of the ancients
in the first place and then define an identity for itself that is at
once Greek and modern? This book reveals the remarkable achievement,
during the last three hundred years, of building a modern nation on the
ruins of a vanished civilization--sometimes literally so. This is the
story of the Greek nation-state but also, and more fundamentally, of the
collective identity that goes with it. It is not only a history of
events and high politics; it is also a history of culture, of the arts,
of people, and of ideas.
Opening with the birth of the Greek nation-state, which emerged from
encounters between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire, Roderick
Beaton carries his story into the present moment and Greece's
contentious post-recession relationship with the rest of the European
Union. Through close examination of how Greeks have understood their
shared identity, Beaton reveals a centuries-old tension over the Greek
sense of self. How does Greece illuminate the difference between a
geographically bounded state and the shared history and culture that
make up a nation?
A magisterial look at the development of a national identity through
history, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation is singular in its
approach. By treating modern Greece as a biographical subject, a living
entity in its own right, Beaton encourages us to take a fresh look at a
people and culture long celebrated for their past, even as they strive
to build a future as part of the modern West.
