Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation by Roderick Beaton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wanted to find a good history of modern Greece and I came across this book and I’m glad I did. I knew a little about modern Greece thanks to a history of modern Europe course a long time ago. I knew something about the Revolution of 1821, the struggle with the Ottoman Empire and Greece during the two world wars. But this book really filled in a lot of the gaps for me, and I have a much better understanding of modern Greek history.

There were several things that the author brought up that were very interesting to me. One of them was the question, who is Greek? In the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century, Greek was a commonly used language in the Balkan peninsula as well as in parts of modern Turkey. But not everyone who spoke Greek considered themselves Greek. Of course, there was also religion – Orthodox Christianity with the head of the church being in Constantinople. Today we think of ethnic groups, but in the 18th century this concept really didn’t exist.

This leads to another point that the author raises: the difference between the nation and the state. The nation consists of all Greeks (however we define them) but the state doesn’t necessarily include all Greeks. The initial size of independent Greece in the 1820s and 1830s, but it grew to include more of the Greek nation. Including all of the nation in the state is what the author refers to as the “Grand Idea.” This more or less came into place following the population exchanges with Turkey in the 1920s.

I really found this book interesting and a pleasure to read. I have certainly learned a lot, and I’m planning to continue my reading of Greek history.