Marx: a Guide for the Perplexed

BOOK REVIEWS

John Seed of modernity and postmodernity in East and West? How is it possible to teach Marx with- Marx: A Guide for the out trying to normalise the tensions inherent Perplexed in the double project not only to interpret the world but to change it as well? In what ways Continuum: London, 2010. should a university teacher handle the polar- 191 pp. ised attitudes of his/her students to Marx’s thought – ideological and dogmatic attitudes Eleni Andriakaina often ranging from total and unconditional approval to strong opposition? Is it feasible Panteion University to teach Marx ignoring, omitting and skipping the various and often contradictory interpre- “In our cheerful discourses, tations of his texts by subsequent scholars better than in the formal reasoning of the without sacrificing the fruitfulness of its con- schools, is true wisdom to be found.” tradictions and falling into the trap of a quasi- — David Hume, The Epicurean religious search for its real, final meaning?

“Alas! Another book on Marx!” I jabbered, In John Seed’s book one may find not only a wresting John Seed’s book Marx: A Guide for precious companion for an intellectual jour- the Perplexed from the selves of Foyles book- ney through Marx’s major works but also a shop at Charing Cross, London, while most lucid and comprehensive accompaniment of the customers were rushing to the second for the teaching of contemporary, modern floor to attend a concert of a young violin vir- or postmodern, interpretations of Marxian tuoso. Since the 1960s, studies on Marx and thought. The author is an English historian. Marxism have been booming. What might a His main interests are in social history, pub- new title offer to the existing wide assortment lic memory and politics in the eighteenth cen- of books, interpretations, conferences and ar- tury and he currently works on the history of ticles in the field of Marxian studies? Owing migrants in London. In a 191-page book, he more to the perversion of the collector rather traces the development of Marx’s thought than the interest of the scholar, I left Foyles and maps out the interconnections and ten- holding my fetish firmly in my hand while the sions between its layers – philosophical, po- virtuoso’s violin was agonising over Donizet- litical and scientific. ti’s Una Furtiva Lagrima. Armed with an acute reflexive awareness, the ❖ product of a long practical experience as an academic teacher and a historian, Seed de- Teaching Marx today is not an easy task. How cides to limit the breadth of his subject by it is possible to familiarise university students focusing on “what Marx himself prioritised” with a thinker whose philosophical, political (11). The book shows the relevance of politi- and sociological writings marked the history cal intervention for historical understanding,

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of practice for critical theory, of lived experi- tionary intellectual who came to talk of abol- ence for philosophical reflection as it focus- ishing philosophy and of overthrowing the es selectively on some key texts: Grundrisse bourgeoisie! Social being determines social and Capital, The Class Struggles in France thought but this determination isn’t automat- and The Eighteenth Brumaire, The Critique of ic. It is always mediated by imagination, expe- Gotha Programme along with various news- rience, interpretations and dreams. paper articles and polemics written with the purpose of guiding the politics of the work- In a similar vein, Seed is equally distanced ing-class movement. The aim of the study is from historicist and “presentist” approach- stated loud and clear: “to return to the texts es, keeping instead a balanced critical view of Marx and to explore ways of making sense that permits him to shift between two lev- of them” (6), not with a view to manufacture els of analysis: on the one hand, the author yet one more final interpretation of Marx but highlights the utility and the continuing rel- rather “to indicate how different and equally evance of Marxian writings for the present. productive readings are often possible” (13). In doing so, he shows their value for analysing the problems of contemporary socie- And indeed, this laconic statement conveys ties today without falling prey to the fallacy the purpose of a book that doesn’t claim to of anachronism. On the other hand, he reads be a revealing new “truth” about Marx or add- Marx’s texts for their own sake; namely, with ing some new arguments to Marxology and an aesthetic and historical sensitivity to the to the vast literature on Marx. Yet, I think plurality of Marx’s voices and demands. In that the contribution of the book lies less in other words, I think that Seed’s study helps what Seed writes about Marx and more on us comprehend the creative inconsistencies, how he writes – how he approaches, reads contradictions and tensions in Marx’s vari- and interprets the Marxian texts. It seems to ous writings. These tensions were, to a great me that the primary value of the book lies in extent, the product of Marx’s creative gen- its specific historical outlook on the exposi- ius: his desire to appeal to heterogeneous tion and the interpretation of Marx’s ideas – audiences, to connect scholarship and parti- a mode of thinking, reading and interpret- sanship, to overcome the contradictions that ing texts that especially suits the historian’s marked his own life-history, the fragmented craft. The readings of Marx’s texts that Seed’s nature of modernity and the positivistic dis- book provides are distinguished by historical tinction between abstract theorising and con- sensitivity – a sensitivity very different to the crete empirical analysis. kinds of contextualisation of theory that especially characterise the sociology of knowl- The merits of Seed’s approach are best ex- edge. Although the book situates Marx’s ide- emplified in two chapters of the volume: as in their social, cultural and intellectual chapter 3, entitled “Materialist histories”, and context, it doesn’t slide into any kind of so- chapter 4, named “Political economy and the ciological reductionism. Marx: A Guide for the history of capitalism”. Here the presentation Perplexed tones down arguments about a follows the distinction between the two levels “seamless web” connecting thought and so- of analysis – the abstract and the concrete, ciety, as it traces the process through which the theoretical and empirical historical anal- a student of philosophy, a German youth of ysis – in order to show how Marx succeeds bourgeois origins, turned out to be a revolu- in overcoming these sterile oppositions. As

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Seed comments, the theoretical schema of avoiding dogmatism, determinism, reduc- “historical materialism” could not be conjured tionism and excessive abstraction in favour out of the air by thinking that is abstracted of a flexible, concrete approach to Marxian from careful empirical research: writings. He therefore manages to provide us with a precious guide to the thought of Marx, The importance of empirical research and a guide that could be used in order to intro- historical specificity was something Marx duce university students to the various sub- and Engels insisted on throughout their ca- sequent interpretations of his theory. reer. “Empirical observation must in each separate instance bring out empirically, Yet, the expert scholar familiar with the lit- and without any mystification and specu- erature on Marx may note an absence in this lation, the connection of the social and po- concise Guide for the Perplexed. Although the litical structure with production,” The Ger- book is written in the light of the subsequent man Ideology had stated. This was a point interpretations of Marx’s writings, it doesn’t that Engels was forced to repeat again and enter into a direct dialogue with the existing again in the years after Marx’s death as in- literature on Marx. Should one consider this creasing numbers of young disciples seized “absence” as a defect? I don’t think so. Some- on “the economic interpretation of history” times, in seeking in a study an answer to a as the magic key which opened the door to question that the author doesn’t seek to ex- an understanding of the past (65). plore, one runs the risk of missing the target. Seed reads Marx’s texts fully aware of the By misusing the distinction between theoret- controversies over their interpretation and ical reflection and concrete analysis, “a rigid this enables him to bring out their complexity and mechanistic Marxism reduces complex without sacrificing their heterogeneity. As he realities to simple abstractions” (72). But for puts it, “the heterogeneity of Marx’s texts . . . Marx “in any historical situation attention has destabilises the position of the reader who to be paid to the historically specific charac- must constantly submit himself, herself to teristics of an entity such as the petite bour- revision and re-reading” (14). The purpose of geoisie which make it always a unique reality” the book (which appears in the Guides for the (71). On the other hand, Seed shows the dia- Perplexed series, published by Continuum) is lectic between theory and experience, stress- to provide us with a guide to reading Marx’s ing Marx’s sensitivity and critical attitude to- key texts and to make these more accessible. wards both the rationalistic and the empir- In Seed’s Guide, university teachers and stu- icist fallacies. As he puts it, “it is impossible dents may discover not a perplexing study of to deduce the concrete either from concepts Marx but a clear path through the perplexity or from empirical data” (76). Contrary to what of reading and teaching Marx today. common sense might suggest, Seed shows that for Marx abstract deductive analysis is necessary insofar as everyday experience and the knowledge we acquire from it is also incomplete – namely, it is itself an abstraction.

Thanks to this balanced and discriminat- ing approach, John Seed’s book succeeds in

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volume, edited by Yannis Voulgaris and Loudo- vikos Kotsonopoulos, takes on precisely such a difficult and important task: to judiciously navigate through the “Gramscian pathway” (as the Yannis Voularis and Loudovikos volume’s title appropriately declares). Kotsonopoulos (eds) In tracing the historical-epistemic conditions in Στα μονοπάτια which the Gramscian corpus was produced and του Αντόνιο Γκράμσι: appropriated, Voulgaris notes an expansive pro- gression from the national to the European, and Πολιτική και πολιτισμός then to the global. This is both factual, reflecting από το έθνος-κράτος στην the actual thematic foci of Gramsci’s work, and – παγκοσμιοποίηση perhaps more crucially – “subjective”: regarding the ways in which the work was interpreted and [Along the pathways appropriated. Voulgaris suggests that Gramsci was first seen as a theorist contributing a nov- of Antonio Gramsci: Politics el reading of Italian unification; subsequently as and culture from the nation- proponent of the distinctiveness of European so- state to globalisation] cialism; lastly as someone shedding new light to the ever-present link between the national and Athens: Themelio, 2010. 214 pp. the global. Underlying each and every phase were of course a variety of profound political Seraphim Seferiades (and scholarly) preconditions and implications: Panteion University/University of Cambridge for example, the twentieth congress of the Com- munist Party of the Soviet Union, the several va- That Gramsci’s work is open to multiple read- rieties of “western Marxism”, the emergence of ings is both a blessing and a curse. For the new social movements (some of them with an student (and active citizen) the challenge is, of ostensibly postmaterial outlook) and, finally, glo- course, to navigate through the resultant com- balisation. Voulgaris claims that key Gramscian plexities in a progressive spirit – à la Lakatos’ concepts, such as “hegemony” and the “pas- progressive research programme: not to pho- sive revolution”, retain a lasting significance and bically shy away from recognising the work’s need to be recast in light of the new global en- perplexing variety of meanings and theoretical vironment. Especially nowadays, no hegemonic trajectories, but, rather, to do so in a manner project is possible unless it has an international that pays respect (and promotes) its constitu- horizon and what may be construed as demo- tive theoretical core. In case one fails to take into cratic embeddedness: functional democratic in- account permutations (and even ambiguities) in stitutions. This is all well, but the question re- the corpus, the predictable outcome is prema- mains: will the democracy envisioned (as an in- ture closure: mistakenly assuming the corpus stitutional form) be capable of transcending the to be unidimensional, one impoverishes it. The narrow confines of the capitalist state? If not, the opposite danger, of course, is theoretical defor- hegemony will not be Gramscian but the exact mation: failing to engage in an immanent read- opposite, some new variety of reorganised capi- ing of the work and its evolution results in per- talism: a direct negation of Gramsci’s constitu- verse and ultimately faulty interpretations. This tive theoretical core.

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These are, of course, thorny questions of the ut- an imperative to exclaim also the obverse? That most theoretical (and practical-political) impor- democracy will be socialist or it will not be at all? tance appearing in the problèmatique of several To wit, it is about time we revisit a notion uncer- chapters, and encompassing at least three key emoniously lost in several post-Gramscian trea- areas of modern social and political theory: the tises: that democracy qua bourgeois democracy nature of the capitalist state, the question of de- is still a structure constituted for the purpose of mocracy, and socialist strategy. maintaining and reproducing systemic domination, with no scruples regarding the use of co- Examining the impact that Gramsci’s work had ercive violence when actors seeking democrit- on cultural studies, Myrsini Zorba’s chapter, for ic deepening encroach on its sacrosanct code example, stresses the autonomous significance of practice: the private appropriation of socially of “superstructures” (entailing the complexity of produced surplus. Relatedly, easy as may be (in- domination and the need to undertake resist- deed painfully obvious) to castigate “revolution- ance at the level of “civil society” via a conten- ary violence”, how is one to respond to state vi- tious popular culture); hence, the importance of olence against actors seeking socialism? One a democratic ethos (what she dubs “the possibil- may well opt for rejecting socialism, of course, ity of society’s democratic reform versus . . . rev- but this is definitely not Gramsci’s option: direct- olutionary violence” (39); and the ubiquitous na- ly or indirectly espousing it seriously distorts his ture of power (à la Foucault). This is undeniably overall concerns and the theoretical medium res so, lest we forget: that the “democracy” we are informing his argument. talking about – hypostatised and super/a-historically absolute – is but bourgeois parliamen- This general thrust of depoliticising Gramsci, tarism, a capitalist state form Marxists (includ- of approaching his writings as if produced in a ing Gramsci, of course) sought to overthrow; political vacuum, has resulted in a number of that culture (i.e., battles of signification) was a false antinomies (unscrupulously utilised for resource to be mobilised precisely for that pur- political – rather than merely research – purpose; and that multifaceted power was a prob- poses): identity vs. strategy; state vs. civil soci- lem revolutionaries had to grapple with. The vol- ety; finally, war of movement vs. war of position. ume is ambivalent on that count. Indeed, some- These are all issues meticulously aired in the times Gramsci is portrayed as a Second Inter- fine chapters by Marilena Simiti and co-editor national scholar (even its contemporary utterly Loudovikos Kotsonopoulos. Ironically, the rift reactionary incarnations) on the pretext that he between identity and strategy (identity devoid of recognised the importance of culture, civil soci- strategy or identity as an end in itself), for in- ety and the not necessarily violent nature of so- stance, entails accepting existing dominations cialist struggle. These themes are all inextrica- at best as irrelevant and at worst as unprob- bly linked. Hypostatising “democracy”, castigat- lematic. Not all new social movements adopting “revolutionary violence” and reducing coun- ed this line of thinking, of course. But that we terhegemonic culture-work to civil society ba- ended perceiving them through the lenses of an nalities is exceedingly facile, but does it reflect undifferentiated, classless “civil society” facing Gramsci’s endeavour? “Socialism will be demo- an – equally classless – state reflects precisely cratic or it will not be at all,” exclaimed Poulant- an instance of the hegemony Gramsci sought zas in State, Power, Socialism, but at a time of an to expose. Similarly ironic has been the trajec- all-out bourgeois-democratic implosion (inci- tory of that concept as well: while “civil socie- dentally, not historically unprecedented), is it not ty” was initially perceived as area of domination

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and resistance, argues Simiti, via the “governance” discourse, it progressively became part and parcel precisely of the dominant hegemonic discourse Gramsci wrote against. And so was the case with the intra-institutional “war of Anna Frangoudaki position”, diligently analysed by Kotsonopou- and ²ağlar Keyder (eds) los. Scholars have, of course, noticed the conceptual difference between it and its corollary Ελλάδα και Τουρκία: concept of the “war of movement”. What they Πορείες εκσυγχρονισμού. have tended to miss is the corollary nature of the relationship: that “war of position” was so Οι αμφίσημες σχέσεις τους με conceived and named (“position” to do what?) as την Ευρώπη, 1850–1950 prefatory for waging the “war of movement” – intended to overthrow capitalism. These issues [Greece and Turkey: and the reading here offered are, of course, con- ways to modernity; troversial. But the debate is long overdue and the volume offers an excellent opportunity to the encounters with Europe, (re-)open it. 1850–1950]

The volume is impressive in the broad variety Athens: Alexandria, 2008. of themes it brings to focus. Effi Gazi’s chapter 397 pp. on the way Gramsci influenced the original notion, and subsequent emergence, of a “subal- Foti Benlisoy tern history” (with all the ensuing historiograph- Istanbul ical controversies); Georgios Giannakopoulos’ examination of the link between the concept It is well known that the domination of Europe of hegemony and Saidian Orientalism (and, over non-European areas was legitimised and via that, postcolonial studies in general); Maria understood through a specific vocabulary that Tzevelekou’s highlighting of Gramsci’s typically represents a dichotomous perception of social neglected attention to language (and his many reality. According to this Eurocentric moderni- key contributions to modern linguistics); final- sation paradigm, western history is cast as the ly, Yiannis Papatheodorou’s theoretical chapter privileged domain of dynamic social change, on the complex relationship between Grams- prosperous economic development and a deci, Machiavelli and Althusser. Equally impres- veloped civil society as well as circumscribed sive, indeed impeccable, is the scholarship of state power and the rule of law. On the contrary, the volume. All the chapters are meticulously non-western societies are portrayed as geog- researched and drafted, in a language that is raphies characterised by a despotic state, limit- engaging and dense, yet straightforward. This, ed economic development (or prolonged stag- of course, brings us back to the book’s political nation), a weak civil society and the absence of significance and ramifications. This is a collec- the rule of law. Thus, the history of non-western tion of essays on an important subject, which societies is conceptualised through a narrative deserves to be critically studied and debated on of lacks and absences, where modernisation is both counts: its scholarship and its underlying understood as an imitation and replica of insti- politics. tutions and practices belonging to the so-called

180 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME western world. Therefore, such a historical ac- remarkable consolidation and growth towards count perceives modernity mostly as an institu- the maturity of parliamentary democracy, on tional and legal set of practices with distinct cul- the other hand there was a “gradual ideologi- tural artefacts that were shaped within the Eu- cal conversion of Greek life, from the philoso- ropean context and subsequently exported to phy of political liberalism and enlightenment the non-western world. While this Eurocentric to national messianism, ethno-centrism and conception has been criticised harshly and has intolerance” (22). However, this paradox, ac- lost ground in the past two decades, we cannot cording to Tassopoulos, did not led to a con- underestimate its pervasive legacy, which has frontation between these two but rather “the infiltrated almost all aspects of Ottoman and Romanticist takeover took the form of con- Middle Eastern historiography. version rather than transformation”. In order to grasp this conversion, Tassopoulos points This volume is a collection of articles edited to the development of constitutionalism in re- by Anna Frangoudaki and Çağlar Keyder. In- lation to the social structure of Greece during stead of relying on a self-evident and dichoto- the second half of the nineteenth century. He mous conception of West and East, this vol- claims that in the absence of social conflicts, ume brings together different studies aiming the transition from absolutism to democracy to illustrate how these terms were historical- was associated with national aspirations. In ly constructed and contested. In their coau- conclusion, “the critical dialectic between lib- thored introduction, Frangoudaki and Keyder eralism and democracy, individual rights and identify the common thread binding the dif- participation, which set the dynamics of con- ferent contributions as “the theme of expe- stitutional development in Europe, never fully riencing, reacting to and producing moder- worked out in Greece and the distinction be- nity”, pointing out the common focus on the tween liberalism and democracy remained right balance between “tradition and import- rather blurred and confused” (40–41). Tas- ed modernity” (12). In that respect, the authors sopoulos’ conclusion that the synthesis be- claim that in both Greece and Turkey national- tween liberalism and democracy that occurred ism has come to the forefront as a saviour: “It in Europe failed to take place in Greece until was discovered as the perfect solution which the late twentieth century is a reminder of the permitted the building of a modernity on a re- conventional evaluation of modernisation at constructed bed of tradition” (ibid). Thus, there the periphery as a history of absences. How- emerges a distinct articulation of a particular ever, in the past two decades revisionist ap- kind of modernity with a reinterpreted or re- proaches in British and German historiogra- invented tradition. Many of the contributors to phy have demystified the conception of a liber- the volume deal with various aspects of that al-democratic West essentially characterised articulation, from different points of views. by a weak state and a strong civil society. In that respect, one can argue, on the contrary, Ioannis Tassopoulos’ contribution (“Consti- that this synthesis between liberalism and de- tutionalism and the ideological conversion to mocracy occurred in Western Europe only af- national unity under the Greek constitution of ter the end of the Second World War. 1864”) deals with the “paradox of progressive liberal constitutionalism and regressive liber- Haris Exertzoglou’s article, “Metaphors of al ideology” in Greece. Although from the last change: ‘tradition’ and the East/West discourse quarter of the nineteenth century Greece saw a in the late Ottoman Empire”, examines how

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modernist projects, such as education, were achieved by evoking and restoring the Greek articulated in the language of “tradition”. More- tradition. Lastly, Exertzoglou also points out over, he provides many examples showing that to the device of a parallel strategy by the Ot- in the educational affairs of the Greek Ortho- toman Muslim reformists, where reference to dox communities of the Ottoman Empire “tra- the restoration of “tradition” as a way of coping dition” was invoked constantly. The discourse with rapid social change was common both for on the restoration of the national tradition and, Greek nationalists and Muslim reformists. thus, national regeneration was a key feature of the modern education system. According to Angeliki Psara’s contribution, “A gift from the Exertzoglou, the articulation of education with new world: Greek feminists between East and the discourse on tradition and the constant ref- West, 1880–1930”, deals with the same is- erence to the restoration of tradition was not a sue of utilising national tradition as a mecha- conservative reaction to rapid social and cul- nism for modernisation. She indicates that the tural change but “was in fact a way of trying to emerging feminist movement sought to dis- come to terms with an inevitable but uncertain associate itself from its western counterpart modernity whose long-term implications were while striving to ally itself with the Greek na- unknown” (85). He underlines that this dis- tional cause. Psara underlines that Greek fem- course specifically addressed the literate urban inists “made every effort to purge their femi- middle classes and allowed them to cope with nism of any western connotations, and present a variety of novel problems such as the position it in true Greek colours” (227). Similar to many of women, the management of the urban poor, other parts of the world, “patriotic feminism”, etc. In fact, this tension between the experience i.e., women’s preoccupation with national mat- of modernity and the evocation of tradition was ters, was presented as the basic legitimis- a characteristic of nationalist discourse in gen- ing mechanism of their inclusion in the pub- eral. Exertzoglou cites Partha Chatterjee in or- lic sphere. Indeed, Greek feminists constantly der to underline the “inherent contradiction of tried to stress the “national” character of their nationalist discourses between the defence of project: “their systematic recourse to ancient the national self, which presumably antedates Greek glory made up for all that was lacking modernity, and the claim for self-government in contemporary Greece, and allowed them to through Western institutions” (91). Although, assume the role of mediator between women non-western nationalisms accepted the uni- of the West and East” (229). Moreover, Greek versal western models, they also stressed the feminists utilised the ancient Greek legacy as particularity of their nations and their unique “the basic argument in support of the ‘distinc- character. Exertzoglou notes that “nationalist tion’ of modern Greece as compared to the ‘un- discourses have attempted to embrace both civilised’ neighbouring countries, ‘Balkan’ and modernisation and tradition, by separating form ‘Eastern’” (237). This effort of the Greek wom- from principle in the case of the former, and by en to disassociate themselves from Eastern or emphasising the historical roots of the latter”. Muslim women, according to Psara, formed a Thus, while on the one hand the imitation of “peculiar feminist orientalism” (237). superficial western patterns was condemned, on the other modernisation was linked directly In a similar vein, Zafer Yenal (“‘Cooking’ the na- with the restoration of an imagined Greek nation: women, experiences of modernity, and tional tradition. The Greek claim to find a place the girls’ institutes in Turkey”) also stresses in the modern world of nations could only be the construction of gender roles as a defining

182 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME feature of modernisation and nation-building opment of İzmir “was a locally induced proc- processes in modern Turkey. By citing Chatter- ess and an organic part of developments seen jee and Shakry, Yenal underlines that the anti- also in other Mediterranean ports” such as Bei- colonial national movements in countries such rut, Thessaloniki or Alexandria. According to as India and Egypt claimed modernisation only Kolluğlu-Kırlı, the fire of Smyrna in 1922, which by “discovering tradition”: “In this process, while devastated a large area of the city, “presented the material aspects of western civilisation in an ideal opportunity for envisioning grandiose relation to science, technology, economic or- urban schemes. The reconstruction of Smyr- ganisation and state administration were to be na literally meant building a new and drastical- adopted without any hesitation, the spiritual do- ly different city” (329). This changed the char- main had to be protected from encroachments” acter of urban development itself, in the sense (293). In fact, the spiritual or “cultural” and not that during the Ottoman period Smyrna’s urban the former material aspect (“civilisation”) was management was locally induced, and there- the sphere where the nation could claim its fore “nineteenth-century Smyrna did not have a superiority and distinctiveness. Obviously, the Haussmann or an Anspach, nor grand schemes principal site for expressing this distinct cultural of urban planning” (335). However, this changed and spiritual quality of the national culture was in the republican era when urban planning be- the home, and it was the women’s responsibil- came a rule. In the 1930s, urban development ity to protect and nurture this aspect. However, followed the designs of the central government according to Yenal, in the case of Turkey “the ar- in Ankara rather than the will of local agencies. ticulation between the place of women in socie- In that respect, Kolluoğlu-Kırlı concludes that ty and the nationalist/modernising project is dif- during the republican era “urban development ferent” in that it applied a “wholesale Westerni- was geared towards a more totalitarian and na- sation of the role of women not only in the public tionalist interpretation of modernity” (352). This realm but also in the private sphere” (294). Yenal meant that “spatially, nineteenth-century Smyr- deals with the girls’ institutes in Turkey and indi- na represented a fractured heterogeneity and cates “the significantly transformative role that an intense density, in contrast to the standard- these institutions have played in the creation of ised homogeneity and apparent hollowness of a new normative order through women” (303). the republican city” (352). Through the girls’ institutes, which instructed young, middle-class women on issues such as Ioanna Petropoulou (“From West to East: the appropriate table manners, rules of public con- translation bridge; an approach from a west- duct and the importance of hygiene, the state ern perspective”) comments on the translation sought to transform the family and the private of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centu- realm according to modern western norms. ry western novels into karamanlidika (Turk- ish written in Greek letters), used by the Turk- Contrary to the aforementioned, dominant ish-speaking Christian Orthodox population scheme of imitation and replication, Biray of Asia Minor. She suggests that the transla- Kolluoğlu-Kırlı (“Cityscapes and modernity: tion of western literary products had important Smyrna morphing into İzmir”) argues that ur- modernising effects, as evidenced by the secu- ban development in İzmir in the nineteenth and lar content of the translated novels and by the early-twentieth centuries “should not be bound introduction of modern methods for the pro- to the framework of Tanzimat or European col- duction, distribution and consumption of books onisation”. According to her, the urban devel- – modern individualistic patterns of reading:

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“Foreign novels were conductors of modernity par excellence” (163). She insists on the role played by the Karamanli press in transmitting modern ideas and western publishing practices (le roman feuilleton). She especially underlines Ada Dialla the role played by Evangelinos Misailidis (“This modernising figure, this anticlerical ‘press bar- Η Ρωσία απέναντι στα on’, was a true intellectual, an ‘organic intel- Βαλκάνια: Ιδεολογία και lectual’ in the western sense”) and his Anatoli πολιτική στο δεύτερο μισό newspaper. However, this is a rather one-sid- ed account of the role of the Karamanli press. του 19ου αιώνα Although Anatoli and its editor, Misailidis, were among the principal popularisers of the genre of [Russia vis-à-vis the Balkans: the western novel among their readers through ideology and politics in translations and publications of serialised nov- the second half of the 19th els, the same paper also harshly criticised the replacement of religious books in homes with century] western novels and condemned the harmful ef- Athens: Alexandria, 2008. fects of this genre. Therefore, it can be said that the press served two contradictory purposes, 399 pp. amplifying once again the articulation of tradition with modernity. On the one hand, it served Nikolaos Chrissidis as one of the main channels for the dissemina- Southern Connecticut State University tion of new and secular ideas in social, political, cultural and educational matters. On the other, it became the primary forum for the defence of Consider this question. Stripped from myths religious and traditional values and practices in about the inscrutability of a supposed Rus- the sphere of education and culture. sian “soul”, from stereotypes about the “big bear” friend or foe (depending on one’s view- In sum, by addressing various aspects of con- point) and from contemporary or subsequent vergent and divergent trajectories of moderni- ideologically laden historiographical schemes sation in Greece and Turkey, the volume offers (be they Marxist, liberal or otherwise), what valuable information and analysis in order to were the views of Russian intellectuals and think about modernisation beyond teleological- publicists on the Slavic question in the Bal- determinist and Eurocentric schemes. Howev- kans in the second half of the 19th century? er, one may notice that the critique of the Eu- This book is an attempt to provide an answer rocentric modernisation paradigm should not to this question. It is intellectual history at its lead us to culturalist approaches where mo- best since it combines a highly sophisticated dernity is conceived as multiple insofar as it is discussion of ideological trends in the Russian defined mainly in the context of civilisational or public sphere with a firm grasp of contempo- cultural referents. In contrast, we should con- rary domestic policies and international en- ceive the plurality of modernisms as “coeval”, tanglements. The book thus achieves what its i.e., as sharing the same historical temporality subtitle suggests: an examination of ideas and of modernity found in other parts of the world. policies on the Balkans as expressed and de-

184 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME bated in the Russian public sphere during a pe- seriously and goes beyond its utopian and un- riod of rapid and upsetting developments both fulfilled dreams to discuss those visions that domestically and internationally. transcended narrow national boundaries and extensive imperial ones in favour of federal so- Ada Dialla, the author, focuses on Russian na- lutions. The book closes with a consideration tionalist discourse as it appeared in the “thick of Panslavism’s failure in the domestically and journals” (the variety periodicals that served as internationally charged circumstances of the one of the mainstays of public speech at the 1880s and 1890s. Writing in clear and sophis- time), newspapers, pamphlets, broadsheets ticated prose, Dialla is commendably sensitive as well as archival sources (from the Russian to the shades of terminology and language. Archive of Foreign Policy) and other publica- The rich and up-to-date bibliography contains tions. By way of a thorough, critical and com- an annotated section on the various periodi- parative reading of these sources, she high- cals used, a feature which will be of particular lights the various debates generated by Slav- use to readers unfamiliar with these materials. ism and Panslavism with regard to the Bal- kans. Such debates took place more or less In a concise and informative introduction, Dial- unhindered, especially after the Great Reforms la lays out the empirical sources and the theo- of the 1860s relaxed censorship and until 1881 retical parameters of her study. She discusses and the accession of Alexander III. Participants orientalism, the “invention of eastern Europe”, were historians and other university profes- imperialism both in the domestic and in the in- sors, military generals, literary authors, politi- ternational front, as well as the construction cal scientists, legal scholars, former govern- of the “other” in the public sphere. Moreover, ment ministers and public intellectuals. Dialla she challenges the paradigm of the specific- approaches the theme thematically and chron- ity of Russia and instead seeks to consider the ologically. Her chronological framework cov- Russian nationalist discourse in the context of ers the period between the end of the Crimean processes common in Europe rather than as War in 1856 and the century’s end. The book is an aberration of the “big bear” in the East. She divided into two parts. Part one covers the pe- does not necessarily subscribe to a particular riod between the Crimean War’s end and 1878. theory of nationalism. Rather, she looks at the Here Dialla discusses the Russian defeat in the nation as a topos where various discourses war and its repercussions. In particular, she il- came together and conversed among them- luminates Russian attempts to redefine ene- selves. Therefore, what is a Russian and what my and friend and also to define Russianness is Russianness prove to be fluid, contested and, through the “others”, whether these others ultimately, never fully crystallised concepts, al- were other Slavs, western Europeans, East- ways in dispute among intellectuals and pub- ern Orthodox peoples or Asians. The book’s licists. A further complicating factor was the second part focuses on the period between the fundamentally dynastic bent of official Russian Treaty of Berlin of 1878 and the century’s end. ideology which allowed little room for national Here Dialla examines the various dimensions liberation struggles, emancipation of nations of the Eastern Question, Russian foreign policy or other such nondynasty-oriented ventures and the discourses generated by the Eastern and adventures. Dialla examines the issue of Question in the empire. In this part, Panslav- Russian identity not through some metaphysi- ism comes in for particular consideration. In a cal concoctions (for example, the Russian soul) very welcome move, Dialla takes Panslavism or a priori theoretical constructs (Russia as the

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Orient of Europe); rather, she considers iden- ernisation, nationalism, social emancipation tity as a constantly changing concept that very and relations with western Europe and the much depended on the historical framework, Balkans all came up for consideration. Run- and which crystallised more or less at certain ning through these debates were two con- points, but never became absolutely immuta- stant themes: that Russia needed to some- ble or perennial. Thus, Dialla provides us with how define itself vis-à-vis the West and that a theoretically informed but not theoretically it also needed to reform internally. Chapter dictated account. In her narrative, Slavism and Two traces this process of definition by look- Panslavism are complex phenomena that defy ing at what the author calls the European am- easy categorisation or categorical statements bivalence regarding Russia’s European cre- assigning them to liberal, conservative or any dentials. In the relevant European portrayals, other ideological current. Russia occupied a middle position between the developed world (understood as western Chapter One covers the syndrome of inse- Europe) and the barbaric East, belonging ful- curity which the Crimean War’s failure be- ly to neither. Such portrayals emphasised in- queathed to the Russians. The war’s trauma variably Russia’s arrested development, its exposed the state’s weakness both internal- brutality as the gendarme of Europe, its semi- ly and externally. After all, or so it appeared, barbaric character, and last but not least, its Russia was a giant with glass legs. The defeat long-term subjection to nomadic influences. was seen as a national disgrace and result- In this context, the fact that the Russians were ed in a torrent of criticism against the govern- Christians was not of much help either, given ment. Clamour for reforms, already loud in the that Eastern Orthodoxy was viewed at best as mouths of Slavophiles and westernisers alike, a schismatic and at worst as a ritualistic reli- intensified in both volume and in breadth. The gion. With the growing decline of the Ottoman concepts of nation and Russianness played a Empire, by the nineteenth century Russia had significant role in the relevant discussions, as replaced it in the European collective imagi- did comparisons between Russia and west- nation as Europe’s internal “other”. Coming ern Europe. In these discussions, liberal and on the heels of such ideas was Russophobia, radical westernisers utilised a discourse that most poignantly expressed in the internation- approximated that of political nationalism and al relations engendered by the Eastern Ques- aimed at a radical reform of the state along tion. Thus, the cultural and civilisational barri- lines of participatory political structures. Con- ers that had been developed in particular dur- versely, Slavophiles countered with a cultural ing the Napoleonic Wars by European authors nationalism that exploited the concept of the (and were most vividly outlined in de Custine’s narod (the common people) and their sup- 1843 bestselling book) now acquired the ad- posed pure Russianness in order to advance ditional dimension of a struggle between ci- an agenda of moral return to the good old vilisation and barbarism on the chessboard of Russia that had been corrupted by Peter the the Eastern Question. Such ideas were com- Great’s westernising reforms. Although there mon among European thinkers of various was some convergence (on the need for cer- political colourings. More importantly, these tain liberties and freedoms, on the abolition of ideas formulated the backdrop and defined serfdom, on the need for reform), the two ide- the terminological and conceptual framework ological camps did not shape common visions within which the Russian counterdiscourses for the future. In the process of debate, mod- developed.

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Chapter Three focuses on these counter- Despite its initial success, Danilevskii’s scheme discourses in all their imaginary and imagina- came up for criticism, even from among Slavo- tive dimensions. For as much as western Eu- philes who were unwilling to reject the exis- rope was an imagined community of civilised tence of at least some common pan-European nations, the Russians constructed an imag- bonds. Still, the particular bonds among Slavs ined community from an imperial framework. became the object of research and reflection Despite the eventual differences, both Slavo- among a variety of scholars and publicists. philes and westernisers were influenced by Chapter Four traces this process by focusing the philosophical and intellectual currents of on the work of philologists, historians and pub- western Europe and even accepted that Rus- lic intellectuals within the framework of what sia had a place in Europe. The question was of Dialla calls the ideology of Slavism. In this con- course what kind of place and on what terms. text, thinkers emphasised the existence of a Predictably, the answers varied. Romantic Slavic world while at the same time pointing Slavophiles idealised a pre-Petrine (that is, out the elements of Russianness that (suppos- before Peter the Great) past with its patrimo- edly) permeated it. Research into Slavic history nial bent, organic relations between the social and philology proved the existence of a com- classes and moral bonds fostered by Russian mon Slavic world. Shared features also includ- Orthodoxy. Conversely, westernisers empha- ed a similar state formation trajectory, concili- sised that Russia could profit from emulat- arity (emphasis on the community) and, more ing certain policies of European countries and controversially and awkwardly, Eastern Ortho- learning from their example. Neither camp doxy. Despite cultural and historical differenc- was fully integrated or united in its views, and es, the Slavs were fundamentally one big fam- included both moderate and extremist view- ily. Russia in particular served as the Ante- points. As an example of the more extreme murale Europae because of its permeable bor- thinkers, Dialla focuses on Nikolai Danilevskii, ders in the East. Complementary to that was a a scion of the service gentry and author of a mission civilizatrice of Russia in the East. Given book on Russia and Europe that became the the religious difference among the Slavs, think- catechism of Panslavism. First published in ers sought to mollify them by emphasising the a series of articles in 1869, the work was re- commonality of ecclesiastical language. Phi- printed as a book five times before 1895. Dani- lology and comparative linguistics became the levskii denied the existence of common laws handmaidens in such efforts. Ultimately, how- of historical development and emphasised the ever, most thinkers were forced to focus on special character of the Slavic world. He thus the Orthodox South Slavs. The lonely voice of placed at the basis of his examination the ex- Konstantin Leontiev sought to emphasise the istence of historical-cultural types among preponderance of Orthodoxy even at the ex- peoples. As a biologist, he thought also in pense of Slavic identity or national emancipa- terms of development: each type underwent tion. Moderate and extremist Slavophiles bat- birth, growth and decline. In such a scheme, tled it over whether scientific research should western Europe was on the decline, whereas have the ultimate goal of proving the existence the Slavic world was on the rise, since they of common bonds, whether it should also point were younger than the western Europeans. out differences and separateness, or whether The future belonged to the Slavs, something it should seek to highlight the superiority of the that according to Danilevskii exacerbated the Russian language. Hard on the heels of phi- West’s innate Russophobia. lologists were the Slavic benevolent societies

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who sought to spread the academic messages most prominent advocates of this identifica- to a wider audience through public lectures, li- tion, although their focal points may have dif- braries and scholarships for Russians and oth- fered. Fadeev, in particular, posited an irrevo- er Slavs, always under the watchful eye of the cable geopolitical conflict between Russia and Russian imperial government. the West, while Danilevskii saw the Eastern Question through the lens of a cultural conflict. In Chapter Five, Dialla shifts the focus on the In such readings, the solution of the Eastern Russian government and its policies in the Question became the opportunity for the Slavs context of the Eastern Question. Here Dialla (read, the Russians) to create a new geopoliti- provides a concise overview of Russian foreign cal situation and/or a new culture. To be sure, policy towards the Ottoman Empire and high- not all Slavophiles bought into such schemes. lights the government’s realism, its reluctance Some of them in fact preferred an emphasis to appear to be upsetting the fragile equilibri- on domestic activism on behalf of their wretch- um achieved by the Treaty of Paris (1856), and ed Russian brethren inside the empire. In de- its efforts to undo the treaty’s restrictive stipu- bating Russian foreign policy, the Slavophiles lations regarding the Black Sea. In the internal were also debating whether the Russian state debates among foreign policy circles two lines should become identical with the Russian na- are clearly visible: the more realist, moderate tion given that, in their reading, the Eastern one, led by foreign minister Gorchakov (in of- Question led to a redefinition of Russian iden- fice from 1856 to 1882), who advocated cau- tity. In their own formulation of the problem, tion and European cooperation in the Eastern on the other hand, liberal westernising intel- Question and a more aggressive policy in Cen- lectuals posited Russia’s European identity by tral Asia (according to him, the prime area of emphasising the Ottoman Empire as the Euro- the mission civilizatrice of the Russians); the pean other. In helping dismantle the Ottoman more antagonistic one, led by the Russian en- Empire, Russia would highlight its European voy in Constantinople, Ignatiev, who supported credentials. This attitude of course rejected a more activist foreign policy in the Balkans, any identification of the Slavic with the East- the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and its ern Question. replacement with smaller Christian nations that would be under the protection and con- Both Slavophiles and westernisers, there- trol of Russia. fore, saw a mission for Russia in the Chris- tian East, depending on their reading of the Gorchakov’s line carried the day in the 1860s Russian past. Chapter Seven shows that the and 1870s. Needless to say, Slavophiles sup- devil was in the details, and in the realism of ported Ignatiev’s plans, although, as Dialla the imperial government’s cautious approach. notes, westernising intellectuals also accept- Russian slavophilic nationalism emphasised ed that Russia had a role to play in the Balkans. the principle of national self determination Chapter Six traces the public debates on the as a tool for the potential future unification of Eastern Question. Dialla analyses the ways in all Slavs under Russian hegemony. Alterna- which conservative Slavophiles identified the tive Panslavist schemes (not without criticism Slavic Question with the Eastern Question by from liberals) proposed a union of all Slavs utilising the principle of national self-deter- under the guise of a common language; or mination. Thinkers such as General Fadeev, the subjection to a monarchical Russian state Ivan Aksakov and Danilevskii were some the with Russia playing the role of Piedmont (as

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Danilevskii saw it); or the creation of a sort of and Balkan Slavs turned Russian thinkers in- federation of small states around Russia that wards: now the parameters of Russian identity would provide protection against the West (as were searched for internally. As Chapter Nine Fadeev suggested). In all such schemes, ac- shows, a renegotiation of this Russian identity ceptance of Russian control would be volun- ensued, and it found its mainstay in support for tary and would come with a degree of inter- Russian absolutism. Domestic developments nal autonomy. Such plans, of course, directly and the rise of activist opposition against the answered the issue of who would inherit the government (and, of course, the murder of Al- Ottoman Empire, including Constantinople. exander II in 1881) contributed to this reorien- Here, the slavophilic discourse directly chal- tation. The result was that Russian nationalist lenged the Greek pretensions to the Ottoman discourse, as exemplified in slavophilic utter- legacy. The Greeks were a small, weak peo- ances, tended more and more to identify itself ple and, in any case, they had already played with the government’s policies. Dialla closes their role in history. But Constantinople would her account with a consideration of the rea- not automatically go to the Russians, either, at sons for Panslavism’s failure. She suggests least in the long term: instead, the imperial city four factors: the disappointment with Rus- should become the capital of the Slavic federa- sian foreign policy failures and loss of Russian tion. (Dostoyevskii was probably the only one prestige, the absence of common Russian in- who consistently advocated Russian control of terests with the newly created Slavic states as it.) The end result would be an eastern Europe a whole, better knowledge of the complexities which, although focused primarily on a feder- and antinomies of the Slavic world, and, finally, ation of Slavic peoples, could potentially also the growing fear that Russian authenticity and include non-Slavs such as the Greeks and the originality might be lost in a sea of undifferen- Romanians. Even some liberal thinkers sup- tiated Slavism. Coupled with the general reluc- ported similar schemes, as a way of reining in tance of the Russian imperial government to aggressive nationalism and replacing absolut- engage in activities that might undermine im- ist regimes. perial regimes abroad, these factors contributed to a confluence of dynastic preferences Then came the 1877–1878 Russo–Turk- and interests, on the one hand, and ideologi- ish War. Chapter Eight traces the enthusi- cal imperatives and directions, on the other. By asm the government’s decision to fight gen- the 1890s, the turn to the East (that is, Russia’s erated among the small slavophilic circles. East) seemed to be a more pressing and po- It also highlights the disappointment engen- tentially more advantageous field for imperial dered by the experiences the Russian volun- policymakers and intellectuals alike. teers encountered in the Balkans. Linguistic and cultural differences and suspicions re- Throughout the book, Dialla emphasises that garding Russian plans led many Balkan Slavs the Russian imperial government was averse to a guarded, if not negative, attitude towards to any theories that would privilege the nation those who volunteered to fight on their behalf. over the dynastic or imperial principle, both for The annulment of the Treaty of San Stefano domestic and international policy reasons. As by the Treaty of Berlin gave slavophilic circles she repeatedly reminds the reader, the tsarist the ammunition to fire off a torrent of criticism state was not a national but rather a dynastic against Russian foreign policymakers. The one. In the mind of this reviewer, the following mutual disappointment between Russians instance illustrates best the prevailing dynastic

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principle: when in the first population census in 1897, Tsar Nicholas II filled the census form’s entry on occupation with the words khoziain russkoi zemli, what he emphasised was his role as, literally, the landlord, the head, the Basil C. Gounaris master, the father figure and ultimate authority of the Russian land, not of the Russians only as Το μακεδονικό ζήτημα a people, but of the lands that were under the από τον 19ο έως τον 21ο control of the Russians, ultimately of his pat- αιώνα: Ιστοριογραφικές rimony (the term khoziain having the meaning of master, landlord, chief of a family, head προσεγγίσεις of a household). Thus, the innate interests and the imperial priorities and realities of everyday [The Macedonian Question governance dictated a guarded, if not open- from the 19th to the 21st ly hostile, attitude on the part of the Russian century: Historiographical government to any nationalist overtures, even when they originated from the pen of stalwart approaches] royalist commentators with impeccable con- Athens: Alexandria, 2010. 158 pp. servative credentials. The end result was, as Dialla concisely notes, that “Russian national- Erik Sjöberg ism was at its basis loyal to the state” (32). Umeå University Dialla is to be commended for digging deep into the shades of Slavism and Panslavism Writing about the Macedonian Question has and providing a thorough, critical and compar- never been an enterprise entirely free from ative consideration of their various manifesta- political concerns or personal bias, historian tions within the framework of Russian nation- Basil C. Gounaris stated in a review of its his- alist discourse. This is a theoretically informed toriography, written in 2000. With the Macedo- but (it bears repeating) never theoretically nian conflict of the 1990s still fresh in memory, overburdened book. Dialla knows well the lit- he and his then coauthor Iakovos Michailidis erature on the topic and other related ones (for claimed that there was a “story involving brib- example, foreign policy, international relations, ery, personal feelings, or political intrigues be- nationalism, etc.) in several languages. Thus, hind almost every book about the modern (or her book is in conversation with the latest di- even the ancient) history of Macedonia”. With rections in the historiography of the Russian this context in mind, “even the preparation of Empire in the late nineteenth and early twen- a bibliography is itself a political act”. The po- tieth centuries. Its particular usefulness, how- litically charged atmosphere surrounding the ever, lies in that it contributes substantially to scholarship on this issue is well known to stu- the existing historiography by illuminating the dents of the region. Nevertheless, Gounaris Balkan dimension. It will be read with much asserts, the history of Macedonia is far from a profit by both specialist and generalist alike. scholarly dead end.

The present study is intended as an introduction to the study of Macedonia and the histo-

190 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME riography about the region that has evolved exploitation of natural resources; the subse- since the late nineteenth century in, chiefly, quent cultural division of labour, which essen- four different national contexts: in Greece, Bul- tially altered the social antagonisms into na- garia, Serbia and, later on, in Yugoslav Mace- tional conflicts and with the manifold practical donia. In essence, it is an expanded and up- and ideological problems of the construction dated version of the above-cited paper, which and the modernisation of the Balkan states, in- appeared as a chapter in an English language cluding the Ottoman Empire. The fundamental monograph on the Macedonian Question.1 problem, according to the author, is the “non- existence of a concrete geographical and eco- Gounaris’ study is divided into four major chap- nomic Macedonian territory”. A unanimous- ters and is supplemented with a selected bibli- ly accepted definition does not exist. What is ography and a chronology covering the period meant by Macedonia has varied according to from 1861 to 2005. In the introductory chapter, the territorial claims of each nation state and bearing the title “Re-approach”, he sets out to changing political concerns. The problem was define what the Macedonian Question is and not limited to the Balkans. For western Euro- has been for the past 150 years. Originally this peans and Americans, Macedonia was initially question emerged as an offspring of the larg- all the troubled Ottoman Balkan provinces, in- er Eastern Question, which concerned the fate cluding Kosovo, while it after 1945 tended to of the remaining Balkan – chiefly Macedonian be solely identified with the Yugoslav federal – territories of the crumbling Ottoman Em- republic carrying this denomination. “This dis- pire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth torted European perception has from the ear- centuries. After 1913, when the wider Mace- ly twentieth century created its own tradition donian region was divided between Greece, and bibliography,” which according to Gounaris Bulgaria and Serbia, the three rival bidders for is part of the current problems (16). One asks the territory and the national loyalty of its in- oneself how the “European” perception of the habitants, the Macedonian Question endured term “Macedonia” can be distorted if it is the through changing political contexts as a set of case, as Gounaris states, that there has never problems related to the legitimacy of national existed a unanimously accepted definition of it. claims, ready to surface whenever the issue Here the author, perhaps unintentionally, slips of border revision emerged again in the Bal- into using the vocabulary of the biased parties. kans. The core of the issue has been the control of the Macedonian territory and the strug- The major chapters, which make up the bulk gle to define the identity of the Macedonian of the book, are the two following. Chapter 2, population(s); what is (and whose is) Macedo- entitled “150 years of historiography and car- nia, or who are the Macedonians? tography”, is a survey of the historiography on Macedonia as well as accounts of the re- Gounaris describes the issue in terms of gion’s geography, ethnology and philology, “problem elements” and lists four such factors, from the mid-nineteenth century to the recent which together have constituted the Macedo- dissolution of Yugoslavia. Gounaris distin- nian Question and preserved it until today; the guishes roughly four phases in the evolution vagueness surrounding Macedonia’s geo- of the scholarly (and nonscholarly) produc- graphical and economic boundaries; the social tion. The first one, before 1913, was marked and economic antagonism between its inhab- by the attempts to justify, in the eyes of both itants concerning access to arable land and the domestic and international opinion, the one

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or the other nation state’s claim towards the tent than in the previous chapters. At the heart “unredeemed” lands and brethren under Otto- of this debate, which Gounaris describes as a man rule, through defining the “natural” eth- clash between historians and, more or less, in- nological boundaries of each group. After the formed social anthropologists, was the issue demographic changes in the wake of the Bal- regarding the “true” identity of the Slav-speak- kan Wars and the First World War, irredentism ers in Greece. The emergence of this issue gave way for more domestic concerns – except was connected to the rise of an identity political for in Bulgaria, where bitter memories and old movement in western (Greek) Macedonia dur- national aspirations were kept alive by (Slav) ing the 1980s, which called for the official rec- Macedonian refugee lobbies. In Greek histori- ognition of this group as a distinctly Macedo- ography, this manifested itself in the ideologi- nian minority, entitled to cultural rights within cal incorporation of the newly acquired territo- Greek society. “Was however this group ‘eth- ry, chiefly through the glorification of the Mace- nic’, as it asserted?” Gounaris rhetorically asks donian Struggle of 1904–1908. The turmoil of (106). Here he reiterates his criticism, devel- the 1940s ushered in a new phase of partisan oped in earlier publications, of social anthro- scholarship in service of national claims, re- pologists Anastasia Karakasidou, Loring Dan- flecting the anxieties concerning the Macedo- forth and Riki Van Boeschoten, who, in the au- nian region’s uncertain future status, following thor’s view, worked under the assumption that the wartime Bulgarian occupation, the com- the Slav Macedonians indeed could be classi- munist takeover in the north and the civil war fied as an ethnic group, in the past as well as in Greece. A fourth phase is finally found in the in the present. The core of this criticism is that period between 1960 and 1990, when a new the use of the label “ethnic” – by Gounaris un- national school of historiography emerged in derstood along the lines of Anthony D. Smith’s Skopje, as part of Yugoslav Macedonian nation definition of ethnie, i.e., a basically premod- building. This branch of historiography was ern identity woven around shared memories largely dominated by Slav Macedonian politi- or myths of origins, and cultural traditions – in cal refugees from Greece; the country which in the case of Macedonia’s population groups in their output, together with Bulgaria, was pro- the late nineteenth century is misleading. Ac- jected as the gravediggers of Macedonian unity cording to Gounaris, the very concept of eth- and independence. Apart from additional bibli- nicity, used with reference to the often mul- ographical references, not much is new here, tilingual population groups of the southern compared to the earlier cited essay from 2000. Balkans before the coming of nationalism, is anachronistic, since it projects the existence Potentially of greater interest are chapters 3, of what essentially is a modern national iden- “The new Macedonian Question”, and 4, entitled tity back into prenational times. The search for “Return to History”, in which Gounaris reviews ethnic identities among the chiefly rural com- the body of research which was written dur- munities of Macedonia would thus be a mis- ing or resulted from the Macedonian conflict guided choice by the student of the Macedo- from 1990 and onwards, and attempts to map nian Question. The choice of national identity out new directions for historical research. The in the region at the turn of the last century was debate of the 1990s actively engaged Gouna- in reality a political choice to which various fac- ris and, as one could expect, his evaluation of tors contributed, most of which were econom- the scholarly output of the time bears the mark ic in nature rather than dictated by ethnic iden- of personally held convictions to a larger ex- tity. According to Gounaris, this explains why

192 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME inhabitants of the Macedonian region could ing, to mention a few. Gounaris predicts that also change identities, sometimes as a result this research will proceed to evolve in chiefly of their personal interests and on other occa- two directions. The first is located in tradition- sions because of the pressure exercised by the al diplomatic history, which he anticipates will armed bands sent into the area by the compet- continue to attract doctoral research, as more ing nation states. This view has been adopted archival material becomes accessible that can by other Greek scholars, chiefly Gounaris’ col- shed light on the diplomatic activities of the in- leagues at the Centre for Macedonian History volved states after 1974. The second direction and Documentation in Thessaloniki. However, is the continued study on identity formation, it is difficult to see that this necessarily contra- chiefly within the transnational context earlier dicts the assertion made by the Slav Macedo- explored by Danforth. As for Greek Macedo- nian minority activists in the question posed by nia, Gounaris calls for more studies of the eco- the author on whether theirs “was” an ethnic nomic integration of the region into the Greek group or not around 1990. Judging from Gou- state, which can shed light on the motives and naris’ own remark that the repressive mea- subsequent choices of local populations. sures taken against Slav-speakers in Greek Macedonia during Metaxas’ dictatorship in the A branch of historiography that Gounaris does 1930s “created strong memories which be- not engage with is archaeology, despite its ob- came enduring, [turning into] symbols of the vious impact on the new Macedonian Question. national repression of the Slav Macedonians According to Gounaris, the Yugoslav Mace- in Greece” (122), it would seem as if the above- donian historians of refugee descent, which outlined criteria of ethnic identity were indeed moulded the young nation’s historical past and met. identity, after independence appropriated elements of the ancient Macedonian heritage as However, the clash between disciplines was a way of detaching it from the federal Yugoslav not just a conflict of terms, but also a disagree- past, in order to meet new identity political de- ment with regard to methodology. Gounaris’ mands. This process is however nowhere put outlook is in this respect that of a traditional in a comparative perspective with the similar historian, suspicious of oral history and the “in- process in Greece, manifested in and resulting terdisciplinarity, which is considered mandato- from Manolis Andronikos’ findings at Vergina ry in the approach to every question”, as well (and attempts at marketing Greek Macedonian as of the influence of “extremely postmodern” tourism in the wake of this). This was not a views (105). Despite dismissive remarks about negligible aspect of the Macedonian conflict in the contribution of social anthropologists and the 1990s. Perhaps Gounaris’ larger familiar- the whole identity issue as a dead end, it is ev- ity with the Macedonian Struggle makes him ident from Gounaris’ text that the questions emphasise this historical period more than the raised by them indeed have served to stim- many explicit references to the ancient past in ulate historical research. Attention has been the Greek national and historical argumenta- brought to a number of previously unexam- tion. Here, attention to the role of museums ined issues in Greek historiography on Mace- and archaeology in nationalist imagination donia, such as the extent to which Slavic dia- could have illuminated the discussion further. lects were spoken in interwar Greek Macedo- nia, the diaspora of Macedonian Slav-speakers Nevertheless, Gounaris’ book provides a well- in the New World and its role in identity build- written and useful introduction to how the his-

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toriography on the Macedonian Question has evolved and shaped it. Read with caution, it ought to interest students of Balkan nationalism. Dimitris D. Arvanitakis

NOTE Στον δρόμο για τις πατρίδες: 1 Basil C. Gounaris and Iakovos Michailidis, “The Η Αpe italiana, ο Ανδρέας Pen and the Sword: Reviewing the Historiog- Κάλβος, η Ιστορία raphy of the Macedonian Question”, in Victor Roudometof (ed.), The Macedonian Question: [Towards the nations. The Culture, Historiography, Politics, Boulder: East Ape Italiana, Andreas European Monographs, 2000, 99–141. Kalvos, the history] Athens: Benaki Museum Library, 2010. 452 pp. David Ricks King’s College London

“The Greeks neither deserved their independence nor acquired it themselves. The real significance of the event lies not in their character or achievement, but in the motives and the consequences of the European intervention.” Writ- ing in March 1862, some months before the fall of King Otto, and while he was obsessed – even in the midst of the American Civil War – with the continuing Greek crisis, the greatest historical thinker of the nineteenth century, Acton, formulated the uncompromising view quoted above. Nothing, on the face of it, could seem further from the fervent conviction of Andreas Kalvos’ Greek odes of 1824–1826 – yet Kalvos, long resident once again in England, could have read Acton’s words, and with we know not what reflections of his own. There is always a danger that, not just historical developments, but also the nature of those writers who contributed to them, commemorated them, and are in turn commemorated today for their own contribution, may harden into received opinion, and that the flux of ideas may be simply and

194 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME crassly monumentalised. The enigmatic figure to the Kalvos letters published by Vitti in 1963. of Kalvos has suffered more than most mod- The answer is, in an oblique way, a good deal. ern Greek authors from this tendency: in this So much of the discussion of Kalvos has been patient and deeply researched study, Dimitris of a romantic nature (whether that relates to Arvanitakis, by contrast, takes an unexpected his love life or to his peregrinations) that it is and illuminating route into the circles, of men welcome to be plunged back into the medi- as well as ideas, that formed the young Kalvos ocrity of his Italian circle in England. And that and his motives. All readers will endorse the means that readers who skip straight to p. 149, praise given to this book in the preface by the at which point Kalvos first comes in for extend- pioneering Kalvos scholar, Mario Vitti: the pres- ed discussion, will be missing out on an am- ent review seeks, while broadly accepting Ar- ple and largely convincing contextualisation vanitakis’ picture, to point to a number of addi- for his first English period. tional aspects which might repay further study. Arvanitakis’ decision to begin with the de- The trigger for the book was something which tailed analysis of L’Ape’s contributors, rele- would make the most hardened foes of tech- gating general discussion of nation formation nology think again: Arvanitakis lit upon what and the post-Napoleonic context till much lat- is perhaps the only surviving run of the short- er (217–63), has the merit of avoiding a long lived periodical, L’Ape Italiana (just twelve general discussion at the outset. It does not numbers, between 15 April–30 September entirely avoid the problem of potted summa- 1819) through an internet link to Belton House, ry in the early discussion (notably 29–56): the a provincial English country house now the back-story of English-Italian literary relations property of the National Trust. It was a good is rather more complex than presented here; scholarly instinct to suspect that, though no and in particular key figures such as Thom- actual contributions by the young Kalvos ap- as Gray, whose “The Progress of Poesy” was pear in that periodical, it might yet supply a key influence on Kalvos’ ode “To the Mus- some idea of what Hazlitt in 1825 was to pop- es”, are absent from the discussion. Nor is ularise as The Spirit of the Age. What Arvanita- there quite enough emphasis on the role of kis has set out to do is to reopen the fashion- the only English poet whose Italian verse has able question of nation formation through an been admired in Italy, Milton (who is absent analysis, prosopographical and ideological, of from the discussion on pp. 209–10, where the journal in question, as a contribution to the Kalvos’ metrical theory is discussed). Overall, study of Kalvos in the formative years 1816– the presentation of the English context here 1820. The bulk of the book, and its composite is rather less rich than that of the Italian, with title, indicates that there are multiple agendas more reliance on secondary sources, some here, and this results in a certain awkward- not of the newest. (In one extreme case, reli- ness of structure; but one of its most salutary ance on Italian sources produces a nonexis- contributions is to remind us that there was tent figure, a geologist “Carl Lyell” on p. 126.) a kind of Italian émigré circle rather different By contrast, the reader learns much about from (and, Arvanitakis concedes, less talented the climate Kalvos worked in from the com- than) Foscolo’s more celebrated group. plex ideological vagaries of, especially, Filippo Pananti: these are treated with some sympa- Of course, most Greek readers are likely to thy and in a way which is genuinely illumi- come to such a book in search of what it adds nating about the younger man. Arvanitakis is,

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again, careful not to identify L’Ape and its cir- written one. More repetition occurs in some cle with the Carbonari or to insist on Kalvos’ of the discussion than is necessary (while, as membership at that stage – though his mem- mentioned above, some further contextual- bership of a Masonic lodge seems probable. ising of the English literary milieu would not have come amiss); and, as the book goes on, An important, and related, aspect, left hang- the reader can weary of the number of rhetor- ing here – inevitably perhaps, given the lack ical or hypothetical questions which are being of unambiguous documentation – is that of asked. (See, for example, the speculations on Kalvos’ adhesion to the Church of England p. 129.) If, as is to be hoped, a second edition (on p. 16 Vitti takes this as certain for a lat- appears, the English of the references, which er period). I read this as perhaps as nominal contain many errors of transcription or trans- as that of George Washington or other De- literation, will need to be corrected; and the ists of the time, and this is doubtless what Su- lack of a full Roman-alphabet index makes san Ridout was seeking to probe in her let- the book hard to navigate at times. Such criti- ter quoted in translation on pp. 172–3 (where cisms by no means undermine the value of the word “proud” in “our proud desire of fath- this thoughtful, subtle and valuable book. It oming the Almighty” should read “alazoni- might of course, as readily have been given ke” rather than “perephane”). The exploration the title In the Footsteps of Napoleon as the here is intriguing, and might with profit have forward-looking title it bears. Kalvos and his been linked to the term Foscolo later used of confrères, whatever their motives in 1819, Kalvos, “Didimo Laico” (discussed on pp. 359– had little inkling of how either Italian or Greek 60), for which the most natural interpretation nationalism would play out – a point which is that Kalvos is an agonised Doubting Thom- this book richly establishes. as when it comes to the Christian revelation.

One important line of thought present in the book, especially in relation to Luigi Angeloni, relates to the Italian language question: here the Italian movement for purismo (see, in particular, 142, 243–4) may indeed have had greater relevance for the autodidact Kalvos as a rallying cry than the details of Korais’ linguistic programme. Arvanitakis re-emphasises, and rightly, that Kalvos came to London “as an ‘Italian’” (155). By the time we reach the open discussion of these questions in Chapter 5, we have a much more refined sense from this book of the formation of Kalvos, which re- wards the reader who has persevered to this point: that being so, the attacks on the work of Dimiroulis add little to the discussion.

For a work which dwells considerably and rightly on matters of close detail, this is a well-

196 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME

know nothing but the British sources and who write like its still the 1960s. This book, unlike those, deserves a wide readership and not just among Hellenists. Andrekos Varnava Varnava sets out to answer two broad ques- British Imperialism in tions: first, why did the British seek to gain Cyprus, 1878–1915: The control over Cyprus and why did they so Inconsequential Possession quickly become disillusioned with it? And, second, what can the story of the British in Manchester: Manchester UP, Cyprus tell us about the processes of imperial expansion in the age of neoimperialism? The 2009. 321 pp. author is more successful with the former Thomas W. Gallant than the latter, but he still makes an exceptionally contribution to the discussion of both. University of California, San Diego The book is divided into eight chapters and or- Given the vast amount of scholarly attention ganised roughly chronologically. In his lengthy paid to the Cyprus issue generally and to the first chapter, Varnava conducts a master- history of the British in Cyprus specifically, ful review of the literature and contextualis- it would seem obvious that the former was es his study in it. As he points out, much of always of immense importance to the lat- the scholarship on Cyprus and the British in ter. Not so, according to Andrekos Varnava the Mediterranean generally is inward look- in his excellent study of the earliest phase of ing and parochial; whereas in imperial histo- British imperialism in Cyprus. Instead, what riography, scant is the discussion of the im- he argues is that very soon after the British perial encounter in Europe. One of his aims is took control of the island, they came to realise to connect these two. He also does a nice job that it was largely an “inconsequential pos- of contextualising his study in the broader lit- session”. Far from being the strategic jewel eratures on Cyprus and imperialism. The sec- of the Mediterranean, Cyprus quickly became ond half of this chapter is devoted to situating an albacore around the empire’s neck, result- the history of the British in Cyprus in its proper ing in the British on more than one occasion historical context during the era of neoimperi- trying to divest themselves of the island. Var- alism. He ends by posing the central question nava’s study is by far the best book about the that frames the rest of the book: how was it early decades of British rule on Cyprus. It en- that Cyprus came to be such an inconsequen- gages and contributes to multiple historiog- tial possession in the British Empire? raphies, including the vast body of literature on European imperialism from 1871 to 1914. He begins to answer this query by tracing the Unlike some recent works about Cyprus, this place that Cyprus occupied in the British cul- one is conversant with current trends in im- tural imaginary. Late eighteenth- and early perial historiography and explicitly adopts a nineteenth-century Romanticism linked the broadly cultural history approach. This is re- Holy Land, the Crusades, Richard the Lion- freshing in a field where even recently pub- heart and Cyprus together and enshrined lished works read like pieces whose writers them in popular culture as fundamental to

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development of British identity. This “spiri- really the strategic asset that they hoped it tual imperialism” (60) had a significant im- would be; and that rather than being an eco- pact on the imagination of the young Benja- nomic boom to British economic interests in min Disraeli (later to become Lord Beacons- the region, the island was a financial bust. field). While this might explain his interest in And so by 1912, they were ready to get rid of the Ottoman world and Cyprus, it is insuffi- it, a story he returns to in Chapters 7 and 8. cient as an explanation as to why, when the In these he shows how military planners and opportunity presented itself, Beaconsfield and strategists came to the conclusion that Cy- his Conservative government quickly moved prus was pretty much useless as a strategic to take possession of the island. Three sets asset in the global scheme of things, and so of factors, evident in the years 1876–1878, when the opportunity presented itself in 1912, help to account for that. One was the ced- the Liberal government proposed ceding the ing of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of island to Greece in exchange for the right to Greece in 1864 and the impact that that had use the harbour of Argostoli, on the Ionian Is- on British geopolitical strategy in the Mediter- land of Kefalonia, as a naval base. A deal that ranean. The second was the Eastern Ques- never was made. tion. The ongoing struggle between the Rus- sian and Ottoman empires continued to shift The intervening chapter (6) stands out from the balance of power in the region toward the the others in being topical rather than chrono- former and away from the latter. This con- logical in focus. It is the most important chap- tributed to Conservatives’ desire to strength- ter in the book and certainly the most contro- en Britain’s position in the eastern Mediterra- versial. Returning to the realm of culture, he nean. And lastly, a report from the 1840s sug- explores two key issues: how did the place gested that the place that would allow them of Cyprus in the British imperial imaginary to do this best was Cyprus, which could pro- change during the period after they took pos- vide the empire with a military outpost that session of the island, and how did British rule would hold “the key of Western Asia” (65). on the island impact Cypriot culture and especially Cypriot identities? Through a careful In Chapter 4, Varnava shows how during the and skilful analysis of a variety of sources – first two critical years (1878–1880) of British visual, literary, mass media, etc. – he tackles possession of the island, the Conservatives these two difficult issues. One way that British endeavoured to show that Cyprus was the control of the island was legitimated was by Mediterranean “Eldorado”; the Liberals coun- linking Cyprus to the trope of philhellenism. tered with a discourse aimed at showing that This tapped into a well-known and wide- the supposed jewel in the imperial crown was spread discourse that went like this: modern, nothing more than Dizzy’s folly. As he shows western civilisation was founded on the ideas in the next chapter, beginning in 1880, when and ideals of ancient Greece; the Hellenes of Gladstone and the Liberals came to power, the present-day were the descendants of the and continuing to 1912, regardless of which Greeks of antiquity; and so the West owed party was in office, Cyprus was a problem, a them a debt. Varnava shows how the British “mill-stone” around the imperial neck. It be- wrote Cyprus into this Hellenic metanarrative. came evident that Famagusta harbour was Ancient history, if interpreted properly, and ill-suited to serve as a major naval installa- archaeology demonstrated that Cyprus was tion for the fleet; that the island was thus not and always had been part of Hellenic civilisa-

198 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME tion. It was, after all, the birthplace of Aphro- a time, the era of neoimperialism, when Eu- dite herself. And so bringing western civilisa- ropean powers were gobbling up large parts tion back to the island was central to the em- of the world like hungry diners at a banquet, pire’s civilising mission. But, this Hellenising the story of the British in Cyprus complicates discourse had unintended consequences. It the picture of relentless, inexorably success- contributed in many and important ways to ful European imperial expansion. Filled with the development of an explicitly Hellenic na- missteps, bad judgments, and wrong-head- tional identity among those who had previ- ed polices that had unintended consequenc- ously conceptualised themselves primarily es, the British imperial encounter on Cyprus as Orthodox Christian Cypriots, as opposed left them with a possession that served little to Muslim Cypriots, Latin Cypriots or Jewish purpose in the broader scheme of things, cost Cypriots. In elevating a national identity over them money and resources, and so proved a religious one, he argues, British policies laid both in the short and the long term to be of lit- the foundation for sectarian divisions that ex- tle value strategically or economically. As told ploded into violence on the island periodically by Varnava, this is a fascinating and compel- throughout the first half of the twentieth cen- ling tale. Very well-written, conceptually and tury. This argument challenges the primor- methodologically sophisticated, this is by far dialist view dominant in Greek and Greek- the best book on the early years of the history Cypriot nationalist historiographies and in of the British in Cyprus. It rightfully deserves popular culture that Orthodox, Greek-speak- a central place on the bookshelf of anyone in- ing Cypriots had always possessed a Hellenic terested in Cypriot, Ottoman, Greek, British or identity and that unification with Greece had imperial histories. been a long-held ambition. In his convincing argument, Varnava shows that there were other mechanisms and initiatives in play that contributed to the ascendancy of a Hellen- ic national identity over other ones based on religion or regionalism. But certainly British policies and practices were important contributing factors, even if one accepts that a Hellenic national consciousness would probably have developed among Orthodox Cypri- ots in any case. This chapter alone makes the book must reading.

In the final analysis, does Varnava prove his assertion that very soon after its inclusion in the British Empire Cyprus became inconsequential? My assessment is that he does. But that is not the main contribution of the book. His study of the British in Cyprus makes an important contribution to both the historiography of British imperialism and to the broader study of European imperialism. At

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that war and the sociopolitical unrest which led to the Goudi coup of 1909. Paradoxically, it is also a neglected period, somehow squeezed between the more “popular” first part of the Niki Maroniti nineteenth century and the following “Veni- Πολιτική εξουσία και εθνικό zelos era” in conventional terms. ζήτημα στην Ελλάδα 1880–1910 The book combines a chronological and a thematic approach. The author is interested in the [Political authority and the overlapping significance of “the national ques- national question in Greece, tion, the constitutional question and the arising social question” (14) while she combines irre- 1880–1910] dentism, reforms and modernisation process- Athens: Alexandria, 2009. 495 pp. es in her definition of the “national question” (14). She is also sensitive to the overlapping Effi Gazi temporalities of history, specifically the nineteenth-century longue durée, the 1890–1910 University of the Peloponnese period and two particular moments: the Greek– Turkish War in 1897 and the Goudi coup and As John Breuilly has pointed out, “nationalism movement in 1909 (30). In this vein, the first part is inconceivable without the state, and vice ver- of the book focuses on the Eastern Question in sa”. There is currently an important and very the late nineteenth century, the Cretan uprising high quality production of scholarly works on and the 1897 Greek–Turkish War in the domes- nationalism and cultural imagination as well tic and foreign policy domains. The emphasis is as on national identity in Greece. Hence, this put on national rhetoric and politics as formed emphasis on the ways nationalism frames the by important political leaders of the era, includ- state has to a certain degree undermined re- ing Charilaos Trikoupis, Theodoros Deliyiannis, search on how nationalism and national proj- Dimitrios Rallis, Georgios Theotokis and Alex- ects are shaped by state structures, political andros Zaimis, but also on the particular roles expressions and political initiatives. of the army, the nationalist societies of Ellinis- mos (Hellenism) and Ethniki Etaireia (Nation- Niki Maroniti has turned her attention to this al Society), and the king. The aftermath of the particular topic. In this book, a revision of her 1897 war is the main background of the sec- doctoral dissertation on politics and the “na- ond part of the book, in which the management tional question” in Greece (1895–1903), she of the crisis after the Greek defeat, in particu- meticulously explores state power and au- lar with reference to anti-royalist sentiment, is thority as key mechanisms in the evolution central. The third part is devoted to the explora- and trajectories of the “national question” in tion of major reform plans and policies which Greece from 1880 to 1910. In fact, the author took place at the turn of the century in the do- is more interested in the critical period from mains of the army, agriculture, education, jus- 1890 to 1910, which was dominated by the tur- tice and public administration. New orienta- bulence arising from the Eastern Question, the tions in foreign policy are also examined thor- 1897 Greek–Turkish War, the multidimension- oughly in the light of the Macedonian Question. al national crisis following the Greek defeat in In the final part, the analysis turns to the thick

200 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME and turbulent period preceding the Goudi coup. cal interests and aims constantly reemploy and National identity debates and confrontations, redefine “the national”. Moreover, this approach the constitutional issue, the tension between is linked to an inclusive analysis which does the king, leading politicians and major political not only focus on irredentism or the politics of forces are discussed while in the epilogue the the Megali Idea (Great Idea) but also on major author summarises the central developments national reforms (i.e., in the army, education, which led to the Goudi coup. public administration, etc.), modernisation processes and changes. In this way, the book also Maroniti does not only exhaust her analysis on illustrates the constant interaction between na- the macroscopic level, which includes struc- tional politics inside and outside the state. tures, major state policies, patronage and cli- entelism or the overall impact of nationalism. The book combines perspectives on politics Rightly so, as the lack of research on the par- with an interest in the impact of social, politi- ticularities and specificities of politics is notice- cal and economic factors. The chapter on the able in Greek historiography. Also, she does Evangelika, the so-called Gospel riots of 1901, not limit her analysis to a narrow conception of is indicative of the importance the author at- political history which focuses on specific (and, tributes to the thick fabrication of national quite often, leading) political figures, their ac- politics, social attitudes and cultural practic- tions and aims, and the causes and results of es and beliefs. In this respect, the work would these. By bringing the power/authority nex- definitely have enriched its perspective had it us to the fore, the author is interested in the also presented how society was portrayed in transformation of national projects as they be- the official national rhetoric and how social come conceptualised, debated, implemented, identities were forged, constituted, practiced constructed, negotiated or even refuted by var- and performed within the national state con- ious factors, including the political parties, the text. In this direction, the linkage between po- politicians, the king (and queen), the army, the litical processes, ideological currents and so- economic and social elites, and even the for- cial attitudes would have proved quite intrigu- eign powers. This broad and flexible definition ing. Even more so in the critical period fol- of the power–authority nexus allows the au- lowing the Greek bankruptcy of 1893; the author to unravel different political and party ra- thor’s analysis of this time not only deserves tionalities, conflictual political rhetoric and lan- the reader’s attention but also invites further guages and competing instrumentalisations of investigation of the topic (which definitely lies irredentism. The emphasis on contingency and beyond the scope of Maroniti’s book). a careful analysis of the particularities of each political debate offer a detailed, rich and multi- An index would have been very useful. In gener- dimensional picture of the era. al, the book offers a coherent, well-documented, carefully presented and clearly argued view Another important merit of Maroniti’s work is of a turbulent and critical era through the lens of that it does not present the “national question” organised politics, in particular in relation to the as a homogeneous, singular entity but rath- state and power. This is an important contribu- er as an arena where different and quite often tion to the study of modern Greek history and competing projects develop. In this vein, the politics. It offers us most valuable insights into analysis turns to the “nationalisation” of politi- the varieties of the “national question” as well cal rhetoric but also to the ways various politi- as in the perplexities of national politics.

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before the imposed isolation of the Hoxha regime. But what changed in Albania in all these years? What remained of what we knew from the so decisive 1940s? How close or distanced Vassilis Nitsiakos is the new generation of people that live among us from the prewar “cultural intimacy”,1 that ex- Στο Σύνορο: ‘Μετανάστευση’, isted between Greeks and Albanians despite σύνορα και ταυτότητες στην the establishment of borders? How did the pre- αλβανο–ελληνική μεθόριο war crossborder networks, roads and patterns function in the new era? And how were new Odysseas, Athens, 2010. 472 pp. ones constructed or invented, along with the new “borders” on both sides? Such questions – On the Border: Transborder along with other more particular or nodal ones Mobility, Ethnic Groups – have rendered Albania a preferential field of research for social anthropology, a discipline and Boundaries on the that was transformed, for this precise reason, Albanian–Greek Frontier into an “urgent discipline”: an “urgent anthropology” destined to expand knowledge and mu- Berlin: LIT, 2010. 504 pp. tual understanding on both sides of the border.

Vasileios Dalkavoukis Vassilis Nitsiakos’ book On the Border: Democritus University of Thrace Transborder Mobility, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries on the Albanian–Greek Frontier holds a pride of place among the books2 that In the winter of 1990–1991, when the Greek– have tried to contribute towards the above- Albanian border controls collapsed, under mentioned direction. It presents the outcome the pressure of the mass “exodus” of people of nearly twenty years’ of fieldwork in south trapped within its spatial – and foremost politi- Albania, the area that historically and cul- cal – limits, defined in various ways by a regime turally presents common elements with the that claimed for itself the “communist truth”, Greek part of Epirus and which was charac- Albania discovered the West and vice versa: terised by Greeks as Northern Epirus for po- in fact, both perceived each other as terra in- litical and diplomatic reasons. Not only does cognita, bound with myths, longings, propa- the writer take a stance on the matter, but he ganda and secrets. Alongside a desire to meet, also dedicates a whole chapter to the clarifi- both also sought to avoid the “Other”. It took a cation of the term, which was constructed via long time to undo the construction of a “lack of diplomatic means and later used for political closeness” between Albania and the West – if it reasons in the context of Greek irredentism. has been undone at all, 20 years later. He also underlines the contemporary reverse meaning of the term, which emerged after The largest proportion of the so-called “Alba- the opening of the border, when those arriv- nian exodus” towards the West remained in the ing from Albania used it in order to achieve country where it had initially headed, Greece, better treatment within the Greek framework, an “idiomorphic West”, a more “intimate” one in finding, however, that the host society viewed cultural rather than geographic terms, at least the “Northern Epirotes” with scepticism.

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However, in order to understand the “reverse” throughout his research during the past twen- of the meaning, one has to follow the central ty years. Issues such as the formation of Alba- thread of the book from the beginning: Nit- nian identity through the indifference towards siakos discusses the Greek–Albanian border religion during the Hoxha regime, the contem- within the context of “transborder mobility”, porary revival of the pluralistic religious puzzle exploiting critically the contemporary theoret- in Albania, the historical role of Greek educa- ical arsenal of social anthropology on “trans- tion and Orthodoxy in the formation of a Greek- nationalism”.3 According to the author, such a oriented identity in the Albanian south, the role theoretical approach can be defined thus: “in of ethnic groups such as the Vlachs in the for- the new migration the migrants’ networks of mation of this kind of border mobility, the re- social relations, their activities and patterns union of families that were split for decades of live involve, on the whole, both host and due to the drawing of the border and Cold War home societies: a social field is being formed isolation, as well as the “illegal” daily crossing which links up the two countries, irrespec- of the borders for labour reasons, are some tive of borders and geographical conditions, of the examples used to validate the need for while the new migrants live thus in between a new analytical tool to interpret the phenom- and form rather ‘hybrid’ identities” (20). enon. From this point of view, the contribution of the book to the international discussion on Is this wording enough, however, in order to migration is valuable, especially since it is also understand Albanian migration in Greece? available in English translation. Nitsiakos’ answer is negative: the adoption of the nation-state as an analytical category However, the most important contribution of in the process of interpreting the “migratory this book is its ability to communicate with a phenomenon” is not enough, as it conceals broad audience. It could be characterised as a a number of other factors that underline the contemporary peregrination in southern Alba- complexity of the phenomenon (such as the nia, through the viewpoint of an adequate ob- ethnic identities on both sides of the border, lo- server, who eyes and records what the official cal peculiarities, the prenation mobility of peo- discourse cannot comprehend – and there- ple in the wider region, the arbitrary drawing of fore disregards – or avoids detecting for var- the border which breached all kinds of bonds ious reasons. The book is all what Vassilis through the imposition of mobility barriers, Nitsiakos has taught us – both students and etc.). In other words, the historical dimension colleagues – to observe in the context of our of the “migration” cannot be ignored, since, in research interaction in the Border Crossings fact, it constitutes a multidimensional, cross- Academic Network for the past ten years. border mobility, in which people have always Therefore, the dedication of the book consti- crossed the border both legally and illegally. tutes a great honour for us all.

The ethnographic material of the book, which proves the theoretical adjustment of the “mi- NOTES gration” as “crossborder mobility”, is very rich. Through the personal routes of the in- 1 For the term “cultural intimacy”, see Michael formants and the piercing glance of the eth- Hertzfeld, Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in nographer, Nitsiakos successfully orders the the Nation-State, New York: Routledge, 2005. huge amount of information he has gathered 2 I mention at this point the indicative works

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of Lois Lambrianidis and Antigoni Lympe- writings of migration], Dia-keimena 11 (2009): raki, Αλβανοί μετανάστες στη Θεσσαλονίκη: 93–104 and «Η εμπειρία της μετανάστευσης Διαδρομές ευημερίας και παραδρομές δημόσιας στα λογοτεχνικά έργα αλβανών μεταναστών. εικόνας [Albanian migrants in Thessaloni- Μια κειμενική προσέγγιση» [The experience ki: Routes of prosperity and lapsus of pub- of migration in the literature works of Alba- lic image], Thessaloniki: Paratiritis, 2001; nian migrants: A text wise approach], in Tsim- Charis Naxakis and Michalis Hletsos (eds), piridou (ed.), Μειονοτικές και μεταναστευτικές Μετανάστες και μετανάστευση: Οικονομικές, εμπειρίες, 173–192. Some of the most charac- πολιτικές και κοινωνικές πτυχές [Migrants and teristic literary works are: Tilemachos Kotsias, migration: financial, political and social as- Το τελευταίο καναρίνι [The last canary], Athens: pects], Athens: Patakis, 2001, and Miltos Pav- Kedros, 1995; Tilemachos Kotsias, Βροχή στο lou and Dimitris Christopoulos (eds), Η Ελλάδα μνήμα [Rain at the grave], Athens: Kedros, της μετανάστευσης: Κοινωνική συμμετοχή, 2000; Ferdinand Stavros Faras, Οι σημειώσεις δικαιώματα και ιδιότητα του πολίτη [Greece of του πρόσφυγα [The notes of the refugee], Ath- Migration. Social participation, rights and cit- ens: Kastaniotis, 1997; Ziko Kapourani, Δέντρο izenship], Athens: Kritiki, 2004. A more an- στα χιόνια [Tree in the snow], Thessaloniki: thropological aspect is provided in the texts Diva, 2005. edited by Fotini Tsimpiridou (ed.), Μειονοτικές 3 For the emergence and the evolution of the και μεταναστευτικές εμπειρίες: Βιώνοντας την term as an analytical tool, see Nina Glick «κουλτούρα του κράτους» [Minority and migra- Schiller, Linda Basch and Cristina Szanton tory experiences: experiencing the “state cul- Blanc, Towards a Transnational Perspective on ture”], Athens: Kritiki, 2009. The texts of Vassi- Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity and National- lis Nitsiakos, Μαρτυρίες αλβανών μεταναστών ism Reconsidered, New York: New York Acad- [Testimonies of Albanian migrants], Ath- emy of Sciences, 1992, and Thomas Faist, The ens: Odysseas, 2003 and Gazmend Kapllani, Volume and Dynamics of International Migra- Μικρό ημερολόγιο συνόρων, Athens: Livani, tion and Transnational Social Spaces, Oxford: 2006 (published in English as A Short Border Oxford UP, 2000. Handbook, London: Portobello, 2009) are important for the testimonies they contain. Fi- nally, Konstantina Evangelou has researched the issue of the migratory literature, providing an analytical ergography of the migrant literary production to the present. See “Αλβανική μεταναστευτική λογοτεχνία: σκέψεις πάνω στην έννοια του ‘Άλλου’ με αφορμή κείμενα αλβανών μεταναστών” [Albanian migratory literature: thoughts on the concept of the “Other” in the texts of Albanian migrants], Dia-keimena 8 (2006): 99–110, «. . . Η βαριά βαλίτσα, ο τσιγγάνος μελισσουργός, το μικρό ημερολόγιο συνόρων . . .: λέξεις και ποιητικές από τις γραφές της μετανάστευσης» [. . . the heavy suitcase, the gipsy apiarist, the small border diary. . .: words and poetics from the

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sively male-dominated terrain, several essays examine how early modern women redefined traditional models of friendship to meet their own ends and fit their own experience. Daniel T. Lochman, Maritere López and Lorna Hutson (eds) The volume is thoughtfully introduced by two of the editors, Daniel T. Lochman and Maritere Discourses and López. They delineate ancient and medieval Representations of Friendship concepts of friendship with emphasis on Ar- istotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Cicero’s De in Early Modern Europe, amicitia and De officiis. The influence of clas- 1500–1700 sical models on early modern discourses of friendship is variously readdressed through- Farnham: Ashgate, 2011. xiv + 275 pp. out the volume. Furthermore, the introduction offers a brief review of recent scholarly Androniki Dialeti debates on early modern friendship. Finally, University of Thessaly the editors informatively introduce the reader to the main themes and questions to be dis- This collection of essays is a welcome addition cussed in each section of the volume. to the scholarship on friendship in early modern Europe which has been increasingly flour- The first section of the book focuses on early ishing since the early 1990s. This book originat- modern reshapings of conventional discourses ed in a panel on early modern friendship at the of friendship. Constance M. Furey discusses six- Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference in Atlan- teenth-century humanists’ revisions of the clas- ta, Georgia, in 2005. As the title itself suggests, sical ideal of friendship as an exclusively homo- most contributors predominantly employ liter- social bond between men, and as an alternative ary theory as their basic mode of analysis, with to marriage. In Juan Luis Vives’ and Desiderius a focus on literary texts – letters, treatises, fic- Erasmus’ treatises, Furey detects the emer- tions, poetry and drama – rather than archi- gence of a new narrative model of companion- val material. The book comprises thirteen es- ate marriage, largely informed by reform ide- says plus an introduction and an afterword, als, which called for a “corporeal” and “spiritual” and ranges over both Protestant and Catholic friendship between husband and wife, without, Europe, although early modern Britain figures however, calling in question marriage as a pri- more prominently. Building on earlier scholar- marily patriarchal unit. The marriage/friendship ship, the collection pays particular attention to question also features in Hannah Chapelle Wo- early modern reconceptualisations of Greco- jciehowski’s intriguing essay on Thomas More’s Roman and medieval notions of ideal friendship, Utopia (1516). According to Wojciehowski, the the divergence between ideals and lived expe- central place of family in More’s ideal common- rience, and friendship as a political or religious wealth denotes the author’s anxieties towards bond. Configurations of friendship in the works male homosocial bonds. Focusing on the well- of well-known male authors, such as Vives, Er- known friendship among More, Peter Giles and asmus, More, Sidney, Shakespeare and Milton, Erasmus, the essay challenges the often ideal- are discussed in detail. However, challenging ised image of humanist friendship and suggests conventional notions of friendship as an exclu- that such relationships were often complicated

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by tense, and often homoerotic, emotions, rival- abella Whitney’s strategies in A Sweet Nosgay ries and frustrations. Male identity and repressed (1573) to present herself as a virtuous member homoeroticism are further analysed in the last of the male-dominated intellectual world. As a essay of this section, in which Daniel T. Loch- single woman, Whitney had to shape her rela- man discusses how Philip Sidney’s New Arcadia tions with men exclusively in terms of friend- (1590) departs from the established notion, drawn ship so as to claim a public position without from Greco-Roman and medieval traditions, that putting her reputation at stake. Thus, male–fe- passion jeopardises male friendship. According male friendship is presented in Whitney’s poet- to Lochman, Sidney’s rhetorical departure from ics as an alternative to marriage, sexuality and the traditional narrative must be seen in relation female domesticity. This section concludes with to the popularisation of Galenic medical theo- Penelope Anderson’s moderately documented ries in early modern England that tended to blur essay on friendship and politics in the royal- the rigid divisions between the “rational” mind ist Katherine Philips’ poetics during the Eng- and the “emotional” body. Thus, the body comes lish Civil War. Departing from tradition, Philips at the heart of the friendship discussion here. employed the trope of multiple and failed female friendships to reject the theory of politi- The second section of the volume is dedicated to cal patriarchalism and suggest a reshaped no- alternative or marginalised forms of friendship, tion of political power as a continuous process. with an emphasis on female configurations. The section opens with Donald Gilbert-Santamaría’s A final set of essays explores friendship in eth- exploration of friendship rhetoric in Mateo Ale- ics and politics. Special emphasis is given on mán’s picaresque novel Guzmán de Alfarache the divergence between idealised representa- (1599). Reordering the classical ideal of friend- tions of friendship and social efficacy. In the first ship as a selfless bond between virtuous men, essay, Sheila T. Cavanagh examines Lady Mary Alemán’s novel narrates the morally ambiva- Wroth’s departure from the classical ideals of lent companionship between two picaros, which similitude and equality as reliable foundational is articulated in terms of common experience principles of friendship. In Urania (1621), set in and the need for solidarity in a world dominated the royal environment, friendship among so- by deceit, crime and deception. Maritere López cial equals – kin, lovers or political allies – is of- skilfully transfers us from the devious universe ten depicted as a necessary system of protec- of the picaros to the sinful world of courtesans tion, a utilitarian bond constantly open to betray- in Renaissance Florence. Examining their cor- al. Similarly, Marc D. Schachter’s essay treats respondence, López argues that well-known friendship as a disguise for utilitarian and self- courtesans, such as Camilla Pisana and Tullia interest exchange in Novella 12 of Marguerite d’Aragona, attempted to erase the stigma of de Navarre’s Heptaméron (1558). De Navarre’s their trade and strengthen their participation as disillusion towards true friendship reflects the poets in the contemporary male-dominated in- broader evangelical critique of faith in human tellectual milieu by fashioning bonds of friend- relationships. The usefulness of friendship as a ship with their male patrons. In Pisana’s and social and political instrument, the perils of false D’Aragona’s discursive strategies, basic prin- friendship and the contradiction between tyran- ciples of classical perfect friendship, such as nical power and virtuous friendship also feature equality, similitude and selflessness, were re- in William Shakespeare’s King Lear (1608). Ac- negotiated to fit the patron–client relationship. cording to Wendy Olmsted, friendship in Shake- In a similar vein, Allison Johnson discusses Is- speare is a “risk-taking adventure in which cir-

206 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME cumstances can be deceiving and truth can only be discerned gradually through time” (192). Male tyranny encounters female friendship and political solidarity in Christopher Marlow’s analysis of William Cartwright’s The Lady-Errant (1651). David Rollison Cypriot women’s utopian commonwealth in Cartwright’s platonic drama challenges patriar- A Commonwealth of the chy by identifying heterosexual love with tyranny and women’s affectionate friendship with egali- People: Popular Politics and tarianism. Returning to the incompatibility be- England’s Social Revolution, tween friendship as a classical ideal and tyranni- 1066–1649 cal order, Gregory Chaplin traces the configura- tion of the male political subject in John Milton’s rhetoric. Drawing on Cicero, Milton’s republi- Cambridge: Cambridge UP, can political theory legitimised fraternal com- 2009. 492 pp. munities to revolt against absolutism, which here is identified with an effeminate and dena- Photini Danou tured political order. The last essay of the section discusses friendship language in Anabap- University of Athens tist communities. Thomas Heilke argues that in contrast to the Lutheran and Calvinist rheto- In A Commonwealth of the People, David Rol- ric, which did not employ friendship as a central lison addresses the issue of the emergence of element in the organisation of church commu- the commonalty as a shaping force of English nities, the Swiss Anabaptist movement gradu- constitutional culture. By combining three dif- ally articulated a Christian friendship discourse ferent theoretical approaches, the Whiggish with which communal unity and practices were narrative of progress, the Marxist class-strug- invested. The volume concludes with an after- gle reading of politics and an appreciation of word by coeditor Lorna Hutson, author of The the constitutive power of discourse influenced Usurer’s Daughter: Male Friendship and Fiction by the linguistic turn, Rollison investigates the of Women in Sixteenth-Century England (1994). longue durée of popular engagement in Eng- lish medieval and early modern state politics. Even though not all papers are equally innova- His purpose is to provide an explanatory mod- tive and well documented, they all contribute to el of modernity viewed as an epoch dominated our understanding of the rich variety and com- “not only by strong states, but also by the poli- plexity of early modern discourses and repre- tics of popular sovereignty” (6). sentations of friendship either as an individual interaction or as a political necessity and civil Drawing evidence from a wide variety of virtue. Although some of the essays are high- sources, political treatises of populist and anti- ly specialised and literary in their approach so populist thinkers, vernacular theology, popular that the broader historical context is some- political songs, rebel texts, constitutional docu- times missing, the book has a good deal to of- ments, plays as well as publications on voyag- fer to cultural historians, literary critics and stu- es of discovery, Rollison introduces the argu- dents of the Renaissance. Those interested in ment that from the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 to gender will also find some interesting essays. the execution of Charles I in the 1640s, a rev-

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olution of commonalty took place in England courts and arbitrary arrestment of villagers, that shifted the focal point of political discourse seizure of lands by nobles, enclosure practices from theocratic and aristocratic ideals of obe- and forced labour,3 commonwealth ideology dience and hierarchy to more socially inclusive formed in opposition to existing government. ideals of reciprocity and common good. At such times, the state and the ruling classes were forced to negotiate with and even to bow This diversity of sources along with his inter- to a higher authority, the commonwealth. In pretative pluralism enables Rollison to over- 1649, however, commonwealth replaced the come the problem of attributing some kind of monarchical state and so it became what it had unity of thought to a heterogeneous “working been fighting against for centuries (2). Hence, class” (which lumps together the middle ranks the words “commonwealth” and “common- and plebs, “those who had to work for a living”) weal” would continue to be key terms of elite by using the ideal of commonwealth1 as an political discourse and they would never again “empty signifier” (208). The word “empty sig- inspire popular resistance and rebellion (464). nifier”, in Ernesto Laclau’s terms, is a concept that acquires meaning through social signify- Rollison’s book is an ambitious work of new ing processes.2 According to discourse theory, social history, the history of political thought abstract concepts such as Englishness, patri- and cultural theory that provides historians otism, democracy and, in our case, common- with a new look at the political role of the lower weal/th acquire meaning through social prac- orders in premodern societies. Though he fol- tices that take place within particular historical lows the traditional Marxist explanatory model contexts. of class struggle to explain politics, he breaks with the Marxist tradition on the issue of he- Rollison goes through several historical con- gemony. In Gramscian terms, hegemony, as texts, from the Norman conquest of England society’s superstructure, is the dominant ide- to the mid-seventeenth century, in an attempt ology produced by the elites and forced down to trace the ways a “populist vernacular move- the social ladder through a combination of ment”, as he suggests, ascribed meaning to ideological domination and coercion in order the term commonweal/th so as to make it a to secure their political leadership and contin- unifying principle for the lower orders of Eng- ue their economic coercion over the working lish society in their struggle against a com- class. On the contrary, in Rollison’s approach mon enemy, the state. What he means by commonwealth ideology emerges as a prod- “populist vernacular movement” is, on the one uct of the common people in their fight, over hand, the rise of the “middle English” language the centuries, for a better life. It therefore con- as a medium in which common ideas and sto- cerns a bottom–up constitutional process that ries could circulate and, on the other, the rise gradually forced the governing elites, if only of the nonelites as legitimate speakers on be- momentarily, to accept the commonwealth as half of the “community of the land”. something broader than and even superior to the monarchical state. On this issue, Rollison’s As the writer suggests, in a succession of a account also differs from John Walter’s treat- series of local or more extensive episodes of ment of commonwealth ideology as a “public disobedience and resistance that took place transcript” created by the government to as- in England on issues such as heavy taxation, sert legitimacy, a notion drawn from the work the harsh behaviour of royal officials, corrupt of James Scott.4

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Another point in Rollison’s book that draws our Another point of critique one could make to attention is the writer’s inclusion in his discus- Rollison’s narrative of “England’s long social sion of the question of industrial growth, over- revolution” is that the writer is not particular- seas trade expansion and the affirmation of ly convincing in the way he presents the Eng- English imperialism as a remedy to poverty; lish Civil War in the 1640s as an effect of the in other words, as England’s way of becom- same ideas and social dynamics that repeating “the richest, happiest and hardest-working edly brought England to a boiling point since country in the world” (319). the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The crowd’s involvement in the civil war often pursued an in- As Rollison points out, political economy con- dependent agenda from parliamentarian or siderations began not with Adam Smith and royalist priorities. Its actions ranged from rural the Physiocrats in the eighteenth century but riots in the 1640s, the antiwar clubmen mobi- much earlier with Sir John Fortescue, William lisation (1642–1651), the Leveller (1647) or the Tyndale, Sir Thomas Smith or the two Rich- Digger (1649) movements later on. ard Hakluyts and their expansive disposition to conquer and colonise other parts of the world Finally, a third point of critique that could be in order to secure domestic harmony and raised is that Rollison overlooks the creative common prosperity. dimension of the interaction between rulers and ruled in the process of ascribing mean- What was initiated with Fortescue and Smith, ing to the nodal concept of commonwealth, as Rollison argues, was the acceptance of eco- well as the effects of this interaction on the for- nomic growth as a moral and political good in mation of English constitutional culture. Ethan itself and a view of politics as the state man- Shagan’s discussion of the “points of contact” agement of economic activity (348–50). This between the government and the governed development gave workers in manufacturing in his Popular Politics and the English Refor- and merchants a crucial role in England’s capi- mation,5 in which he introduces a similar ap- talist growth and in the production of national proach to what the sociologists would call wealth. “path dependence”, provides us with a useful insight into the way collaboration, along with In stressing this argument, however, the writ- opposition and resistance, structured English er disregards the exclusionary effects of the politics and constitutional culture. Rollison fails growth of the secondary sector of the English to take into consideration Shagan’s influential economy for the poor peasants as well as the thesis, so this dimension of consent and col- economic gap it created between the urban laboration is not integrated in his analysis. and rural economies. In conclusion, Rollison’s A Commonwealth of Not all members of the lower strata benefit- the People is a book designed to illuminate the ed from the expansive horizons of the English long-term history of popular politics in medie- capitalist economy and, in any case, at the time val and early modern England; it provides read- this expansion took place, they surely would ers with useful food for thought on the issue of not be in a position to realise the macro-eco- how modern constitutionalism emerged out of nomic effects of this development, so as to in- premodern societies. It makes a strong case corporate it as a desirable prospect into their for the importance of the notion of common- collective imaginary and political culture. wealth as a constitutive element of English po-

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litical identity and culture. He conceptualises the process of ascribing meaning to the concept of commonwealth as a bottom–up course – an argument that readers may choose to accept or reject. In any case, this is a stimulating Panagiota Tzivara book that deserves a wider readership. Βενετοκρατούμενη Ζάκυνθος (1588–1594): Η νομή και η NOTES διαχείριση της εξουσίας από 1 Rollison uses the word “commonweal” to το Συμβούλιο των 150 stand for various spellings and usages prior to 1520 and “commonwealth” to refer to those in [Venetian Zakynthos, 1588– use after that date. As he argues, this change also implied a shift of meaning from moral and 1594: The allocation and spiritual to more materialist values (2, note 4). management of power by 2 Ernesto Laclau, “Why do Empty Signifiers Mat- the Council of 150] ter to Politics?” in Emancipation(s), London and New York: Verso, 1996, 36–46. Enalios: Athens, 2009. 710 pp. 3 The Commons rebellion of 1381, Jack Cade’s re- Dimitris Arvanitakis bellion of 1450, the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, or Kett’s rebellion in 1549 are the most striking Historian, Benaki Museum, Athens incidents with which Rollison is concerned. 4 John Walter, “Public Transcripts, Popular In many ways, the Ionian Sea is an advanta- Agency and the Politics of Subsistence in Ear- geous area for historiographical research. Just ly Modern England”, in Michael Braddick and to mention two reasons: firstly, as a “società di John Walter (eds), Negotiating Power in Early frontiera”, as a society with a discrete histori- Modern Society: Order, Hierarchy and Subordi- cal journey and therefore cultural singularity, nation in Britain and Ireland, Cambridge: Cam- it offers historians the opportunity to approach bridge UP, 2001; James Scott, Domination and many issues in our modern history from very the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, different points of view; secondly, because the Yale: Yale UP, 1990. region’s age-old historiographical tradition, 5 Ethan Shagan, Popular Politics and the English along with the new concerns and trends in his- Reformation, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. toriography, have led, both within and without Greece, to a significant resurgence of relevant research, such that has not been witnessed in any other Greek “local history” except for that of Crete, for similar reasons. This book proves this in the best possible way.

The Atti del Consiglio dei 150 della magnifica Communità della città di Zante (The records of the Council of 150 of the magnificent community of the city of Zakynthos), which extends

210 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME from 1 November 1587 to 11 August 1594, are chants of disparate origins, individuals from published and discussed in this volume. The the military or civil hierarchy) who had taken publication of this historical document, com- permanent residence in the city but also in- prising the second part of the book (397–588), dividuals from more humble families (either is preceded by part one (21–396), in which the of foreign origin or from the island’s coun- author discusses issues such as the allocation tryside) who became more powerful through and management of power on the island at the their economic activities, and this increased end of the sixteenth century, and provides an the numbers of those seeking the right to par- exceptionally useful, albeit incomplete, profil- ticipate in the community. The fact that Ven- ing of the members of the Council of 150 in this ice had not defined, as in its other colonies, period. In the long introduction, the author uti- the exact criteria needed to acquire citizen- lises the contributions of the latest literature ship (and, of course, participation in the com- and clarifies the terminology and prosopogra- munity council) complicated the problem. It is phy, while presenting the institutional context worth remembering that the constant renew- of the time, thus allowing the reader to more al of the population and the opportunities to fully comprehend the published document.1 become a part of the hegemonic group of citizens brought about the need for constant re- The issue at the core of this book is well negotiation of the multilayered networks and, known from the historiography of the past therefore, a constant upset to the equilibrium. but has been more fully dealt with in recent research: it is perhaps the most critical period The community, complaining constantly about in the sixteenth century, in which the island’s the inclusion of “unworthy” candidates in the powerful families endeavoured to entrench General Council (Consiglio Generale), endeav- their power. We know of the general mecha- oured to put obstacles in the way of their ad- nism and the rationale of it and we are aware mission, but without any substantial results. In of the parallels between the local phenomenon 1542 the community was successful in having and the rest of the Ionian, on Crete, in Venice the Venetian Senate approve its demand that and in Venice’s terra ferma. What remains for 150 citizens be elected annually by the General us is to transcend anecdotal cases and to com- Council, who would constitute the Minor Coun- prehend the “particular”, the local expression cil (Consiglio Minore), which, in turn, would elect of this mechanism within the framework of the communal appointments (cariche): this was the specific island. the first step in the path to entrench local power. In this manner, the powerful families neu- The tendency of the island’s powerful families tralised the General Council, to an extent. Natu- to keep the ruling nucleus pure and to pre- rally, the “disordine” that reigned at meetings of vent others from being included in the group this council continued, and faced with the refus- of citizens (cittadini) peaked approximately in al of the Senate (1576) to explicitly prevent the the mid-sixteenth century. The main oppo- induction of candidates about whom there were nents of the citizens, as it emerges from the suspicions of being engaged in manual work, documents produced by the community, were in 1578 they deprived (without seeking permis- the foreigners (forestieri), coming mainly from sion) the General Council of its right to annually Greece and Italy, and persons of manual work elect the 150, thus rendering it useless. From (arte meccanica). In the course of the centu- then on, the 150 members whose tenure was ry, it was not only powerful foreigners (mer- over would vote for the new members.

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In 1582 and 1589, having acquired true power, the formation of the leadership consciousness the Council of 150 endeavoured to clarify who of the dominant stratum on the island.4 (foreigners or locals) had the right to take part in the proceedings of the General Council and The data in this primary source, along with oth- therefore (and this is explicitly stated in the er information, provides a fuller knowledge of decision of 1589) who had the right to become the mechanism and how it differed in various a candidate for the 150: evidently because cases. For example, if the tendency for the en- they believed that candidates would appear trenchment of the nobility (nobiltà) can be ob- who were not even qualified to be included served in the city of Venice and the terra ferma,5 in the General Council. As the author rightly and in other regions of the Stato da Mar, why points out, the large number of votes in fa- did it not occur in the same way everywhere – vour of the above decisions proves the wide- not even within the Ionian, where the reality of spread approval of the view that there was the islands (at first glance only) did not greatly a need to limit citizenship and of the tenden- differ. It appears, however, that it was exactly cy for local power to be exercised by an ever the local differences that brought about the var- diminishing number of families (55 and 59).2 iations. And it is worth contemplating a number of questions. If the sixteenth century was, to The upset of 1578 lasted until 1595, and de- use Angelo Ventura’s words, “the century of spite the fact that the local community ne- the aristocracy’s triumph” (il secolo del trion- glected to ask the Senate’s permission, all the fo dell’aristocrazia), that is, the reconfirmation Venetian authorities on the island were clearly of the ideals of the nobility, can one truly claim in agreement. No sooner had the local dispute that “the Venetian overseas colonies partook in come out into the open, with two different del- the aristocratic reaction of the citizens [sic]; in egations (on behalf of the Council of 150 and on this case the citizens of the council of Zakyn- behalf of the many disgruntled citizens) being thos” (53)? Can the phenomenon that Ventura sent to Venice, than the latter did away with the studied in the Venetian society of the fifteenth decision (the “novità”) of 1578, reverting to the and sixteenth centuries6 be identified with the conditions of 1542, despite the vacillations of question being researched, as Tzivara main- the current and previous Venetian officials of tains? It remains to be examined, but I have the the island as it appears from their decisions – impression that, although this phenomenon of or perhaps because of them. the reconfirmation of the nobility generally took place in same decades and was reinforced by It is this story – which this invaluable primary the spirit of the times, there is a different mean- source tells us about – that Panagiota Tzivara ing of its local expressions, produced by very has shed light on. The first to provide infor- different economic and social conditions. mation, Ermanno Lunzi, had already implicitly suggested the context in which this was to be In trying to comprehend the local expressions perceived: “There was a time during which the of general mechanisms, the statistical analy- Council of 150 of Zakynthos, swept along by the sis of the source’s data has allowed the author oligarchic spirit, usurped its rights, with the de- (85–91) to provide evidence of a clear picture of cision of 15 June 1578.”3 One of the benefits of the local reality, but a more thorough exami- recent research and the renewal of questions nation is required. In the council elections from is that today we can understand this act not as 1588 to 1594, it seems that out of the 150 mem- a “chance” moment but as a link in the chain in bers, 116 were elected year in, year out (100

212 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME were elected seven times, and 16 were elect- place and was confirmed. What were the fam- ed six of the seven times), while only 34 seats ilies’ strategies? How similar were they, and changed hands. And out of this hardcore of 116, to what extent did they depend on the partic- it seems that 56 were elected with 95 percent of ular characteristics (origins, length of settle- the vote. There can be, therefore, no doubt that ment on the island, economic activity, pres- one must abandon the old historiographical ence in the administration or military, number concept of a homogeneous “class” as an inter- of members, etc.) of each family? The answers pretative tool: the very meaning of “class” has seem self-evident, but research is still pend- for some time now been under doubt and it re- ing. The Macri family (which had ten mem- mains for us to truly understand the forms and bers in the council over a seven-year period) meanings of differences in the institutionalised and the Siguro family (with seven members) order – which developed gradually – of the citi- gained many and important appointments zens.7 Therefore, I believe that the “number” of (cariche) for their members; but the Gavrilop- “individuals” is not the best way to understand ulo family, with a monopolistic presence in the (and to deal with) this problem. The basis of our management of the public finances and six interpretative viewpoint must be to understand members among the 150, also only managed the role of the family (extended or otherwise), to gain three appointments in seven years. as we know that only within the framework of What is the explanation for these differences? the family can the behaviour and the choices Changing the interpretative key would bring of the “individual” be understood. It is evident us closer to an explanation. Thus, one could that, for example, the opportunity for re-elec- understand in greater depth the “hardcore” of tion, indeed time and time again, was linked to the Council of 150, as the arithmetical image of the size of the family, the kin or client relations, the “individuals” would be transformed into the the economic standing of the family and con- historicised image of the family, a perspective current success in other fields such as the ad- more correct and substantive for those times. ministration or the military (81–84). Yet another question arises in the same vein The author rightly notes that it is a mistake based on the data of the source and the ma- to believe that those belonging to the 150, terial collected by the author: the study of the even in this critical period, constituted a “uni- history of offices and appointments (offitii et fied group, whose members did not come cariche), of the mechanism by which adminis- into conflict but supported each other” (97, trative/bureaucratic staff was assembled; the see also 392).8 One need only recall the con- role of the “offitii et cariche” in the formation flict between the Siguro and Mondino families of political education and their significance for or the Volterra and Balsamo families during the conception and organisation of power and these decades (92–100). But this indisputable of the state, would all prove to be critical in the fact, which brings us to the largely unexam- eighteenth and mainly nineteenth centuries. ined role of the family and networks in the The author deals extensively, in her introducto- context of the new “political/administrative” ry text (117–169), with the issue of the “offitii et reality of Venetian power, gives rise to other cariche”, particularly the communal ones (dis- questions that we have not fully dealt with. tribution, management), and indeed with one very important facet: the use of the right to al- Central among these questions is that of the locate (or vote for) the appointments by three choices through which upward mobility took loci of power (Venice, local Venetian officers

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and the citizens’community) as a weapon in stand the wider picture; to deal with the ques- the political game. Not only do we know of the tion of the mechanism itself through an analy- persistence with which the community sought sis that would include and go beyond individual for decades (see indicatively p. 121) from the cases. The need to record the lives of such per- local Venetian officers or the Venetian Sen- sons whenever possible (“the Gavrilopulo case ate to gain the right to vote for certain appoint- is truly one of the desiderata of research”, 251) ments, but we also know of the repeated and must take second place to acquiring a fuller sometimes conflicting decisions of the Vene- picture of broader groups and attitudes within tian organs, and of the protests of the commu- a certain historical framework. nity over the monopoly that the members of the community had over certain appointments, Many questions can be posed. This extremely despite decisions to the contrary having been useful publication, combined with the frame- taken in Venice. work provided by the author, must now be read along with all the other well-known liter- A careful reading of the history of the “offitii et ature on the era in light of contemporary ques- cariche”, a clear understanding of the duties tions. It will no doubt permit a better under- (we still do not have critical data for many); an standing of specific events, but mainly it will understanding of the local variations of “offit- shed more light on the prosopography, and ii et cariche” (noted by the author on p. 121); contribute to a more complete understand- the fact that they multiplied; the distinction ing of the meaning and manner in which so- between honorary communal appointments cial groups formed ideas and attitudes within (cariche di onore) and salaried appointments the framework created in the Ionian Islands by (cariche di lucro);9 the broadening or narrowing the steady imposition of the ideological world, of jurisdictions; the extent to which they were political language and institutional framework pursued by powerful families; the significance of the Serenissima Repubblica. of some of these for the bureaucratic career of the citizens, etc. All these are some of the questions that remain to be answered so that NOTES we can comprehend their precise importance and the exact manner in which they influenced 1 However, in some cases (such as for example local reality and the “political education” of the in Unit 7 of Chapter 4 (253–273) or Chapter 5 local (but not only of the local) citizens. (283–305), I believe that the title and the issues discussed do not fully correspond. The author extensively discusses the case of 2 The decisions of 1582 and 1589 are clearly a the Gavrilopulo family (244–253), which is well part of the dispute over who had the right to known from other researches. For over a cen- be included in the General Council (and there- tury, this family monopolised the offices of the fore could become a candidate for the 150), al- local public treasury (Camera Fiscale), despite though, particularly for the second case, the at times a storm of reaction from the com- vagueness of the author’s translation (58–59) munity itself. Was this a unique case, or just leaves room for misunderstanding. The deci- the most well known in terms of the literature sion refers to those who wished to be included and research that has been conducted? I be- in the General Council, and the process is de- lieve the latter applies, but in any case there is fined (esser aprobati, introdoti, balotati), while it a need to go beyond case studies and to under- is explicitly stated that this decision does not re-

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verse that of 1582, which clearly stated the criteria for the candidature of foreigners. Further- more, the final decision of the Senate (1595) to revert to the conditions of 1542 does not mention reversing the decisions of 1582 and 1589; Apostolos Lampropoulos and therefore, the cautious and suspicious Senate Antonis Balasopoulos (eds) did not identify the two. See the entire text: Ar- chivio di Stato di Venezia (hereafter ASV), Sen- Χώρες της θεωρίας: Ιστορία ato Mar, Registro 55, pp. 205v–206r (244v– και γεωγραφία των κριτικών 245r), 30 Nov 1595 and ASV, Senato Mar, filza 129 (material attached to the decision). αφηγημάτων 3 Ermanno Lunzi, Della condizione politica delle [States of theory: history isole ionie sotto il dominio Veneto (Greek edition), Athens: Nikolaidis Filadelfeos, 1856, 71. and geography of critical 4 See Dimitris Arvanitakis, Κοινωνικές αντιθέσεις narratives] στην πόλη της Ζακύνθου: Το ρεμπελιό των ποπο- λάρων (1628), Athens: Benaki Museum/Hellenic Athens, Metaichmio, 2010. 584 pp. Literary and Historical Archive, 2001, 97–111. Alexandra Lianeri 5 The “serrata del Maggior Consiglio” (1297) and University of Thessaloniki the “serrata cittadinesca” (1569). See Arvani- takis, Κοινωνικές αντιθέσεις, 67–74. The contemporary globalisation of scholarship 6 Angelo Ventura, Nobiltà e popolo nella società in the human and social sciences has implied veneta del Quattrocento e Cinquecento, Milan: that the struggle with theoretical concepts has Edizioni Unicolpi, 1993. become a struggle over translation. As Dipesh 7 For a synopsis of the argument, see Arvani- Chakrabarty notes, there was a time when the takis, Κοινωνικές αντιθέσεις, 35–46. diverse forms of understanding and practice were translated into universal categories of 8 It is a term she uses, however, with some European origin, following a model of “rough” looseness (compare “the ‘permanently’ elect- translation: one that was adequate to the task ed group of 116 people” [86] with “in this ‘pow- of comprehension. The ongoing challenge to erful’ group” [85]). See the author’s observa- this model is to pay attention to the very proc- tions directly afterwards. The use of the term ess of translation and the partly opaque re- “administrative oligarchy of 150” (392) to char- lationship of difference it mediates.1 This vol- acterise the 150 who took the decision of 1589 ume, States of Theory, engages with this re- is perhaps problematical. lationship by focusing on the question of “the- 9 The distinctions were not absolute and there ory” in the Greek-speaking world. Its aim is to are still many misunderstandings on this explore how the narratives of theory entail a (133–134, 140–141). pluralised history and geography, forcing us to speak not of a singular state of theory, but of many. Which forms of transfer, interaction, appropriation and reorientation sustain the key references of Greek-speaking theoretical con- templation? Is theory in Greece a peripheral

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enterprise involving the mere transposition of man appropriation of French and Anglophone concepts? Can we map and appraise the di- reception theory, which was in turn reformu- versity of references and categories that com- lated to become the foundation of new theo- prise the realm of Greek theory? retical currents. The essay fruitfully expands this dialogue to comment on contradictions of The book’s response to these questions is the Greek reception of reception theory, in or- structured around five categories, which also der to suggest that these contradictions attest mark the distinct sections of the volume. The to the difference underlying any form of the- first of these categories is the literary and its oretical transposition. The section ends with implications for theory: the role of (literary) Sophie Iakovidou’s wide-ranging exploration reading in constructing concepts, the multi- of literary reception theory from the viewpoint ple connections between literature and theo- of Bourdieu’s field theory and Alain Viala’s so- ry, and the ensuing consideration of literature ciopoetics. as a movement outside the limits of the self and towards a dialogue with the other. In this The second section examines two intersect- context, Karin Boklund-Lagopoulou’s semi- ing objects of contemporary theory: the mi- autobiographical essay traces the question of gration of words and the migration of people, history and historicisation at the intersections as speakers and listeners. Here Ioanna Laliot- of literature and theory over the last 35 years. ou focuses on both Greek and other examples Moving from structuralism, through new his- in order to argue that migration is inscribed toricism, to poststructuralism, she focuses on in concepts and narratives of national histo- key debates surrounding the problem of liter- ry, which it serves to undermine and uproot ary and historical context in order to conclude from within. Konstantinos Kavoulakos engag- that the historicisation of literature is both nec- es with the inscription of migration in theoret- essary and impossible. Lito Ioakimidou focus- ical reflection. His study of Adorno, Horkhe- es on the challenges posed to traditional com- imer and Habermas explores the geographi- parative literature by literary theory and cultur- cal and historical dislocations of the Frankfurt al studies. She is especially interested in the school to suggest that theory lacks attachment way the latter fields approach the encounter to a single place as is fundamentally utopian. with the foreign as a mode of constructing, Finally, Grigoris Paschalidis charts some of sustaining or challenging the national self. The the interdisciplinary and geographical routes problematic arising from this confrontation is of cultural theory and cultural studies, from deemed to be crucial for both comparative lit- the re-evaluation of the opposition between erature and historical studies in Greece, as it cultural and civilisation attempted by the Bir- can further a fundamental goal of compara- mingham school to the postcolonial attempts tive research: the advancement of a new hu- to challenge enclosure into either universal or manism, which highlights the interconnection local boundaries. of traditions, while simultaneously stressing the historicity of these traditions and their irre- The next theme is the theoretical reconfigu- ducible specificity. Miltos Pechlivanos engag- ration of the polis and the political, and their es with the historical and geographical routes intersections with the frames of historiogra- of the aesthetics of reception. He argues that phy. Mina Karavanta’s essay opens this sec- the establishment of the field exemplifies a se- tion with a wide-ranging problematic on com- ries of reception acts going back to the Ger- munities lacking association with a predefined

216 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME political order, the illegal immigrants standing tions and translations involved in their consti- of the margins of the global cities of late capi- tution. Alexandros F. Lagopoulos examines the talism. Following Balibar, Karavanta explores cross-disciplinary development of the fields of how these communities are brought together political economy, semiotics of space and lit- by a shared fate and asks how the reconsider- erary theory by exploring some key debates ation of the literary may posit anew the ques- about the notion of (human) space in human tion of living together in a politeia that brings geography, human ecology, social anthropol- within it the global and the local without reduc- ogy and history after the 1950s. His multidi- ing the one to the other. Alexandros Kioupki- rectional analysis leads to a holistic consider- olis takes his cue from spontaneous demon- ation of spatial categories and allows him to strations in Athens that followed the 2008 de- explore how space has been used to account struction of Parnitha by fire in order to debate for the writing and reception of literary works, considerations of metapolitics and metade- and how the latter redefine, in turn, our under- mocracy by Hardt and Negri, on the one hand, standing of space. Stephanos Stephanides fo- and by Laclau and Mouffe, on the other. The cuses on translation theory, which he exam- essay deploys the Athenian example in order ines as central to the constitution of national to critically engage with the concepts of mul- literary and cultural traditions. Focusing on the titude and democracy, and argues for a defini- tension between the promise of translation to tion of the political in terms of an uncertainty transcend (national) boundaries and the funda- that challenges a given social order. Effi Gazi mental impossibility of this transfer, the essay traces the turn of late twentieth-century his- challenges the binary opposition between the toriography towards narrative as the centre cultural self and the cultural other, and stress- of historical research. In a discussion ranging es the hybrid and transcultural status of all evo- from Hayden White’s Metahistory to French cations of literary “autonomy”. Eleni Hodolidou structuralism and poststructuralism, and from turns to crossings in the discipline of educa- Ankersmit and Ricoeur to Spivak and to Ginz- tion in Greece. Her essay defends an interdis- burg’s debate with White, Gazi discusses nar- ciplinary understanding of pedagogy by tracing rativity as an attempt to contextualise histori- shifts caused after the 1960s by the opening of cal research and to reflect on the historicity of the field to other disciplines, such as sociology history writing. Yiannis Papatheodorou contin- and psychology, but also to the cross-discipli- ues the debate on narrativity by focusing on the nary research of fields such as cultural studies, challenge posed by the “rhetorical turn” to both literary studies and media studies. the idealistic dissociation of language from the social world and the positivist appeal to trans- The book concludes with the question of me- parent representation of the past. Moving from tatheory by which it designates the state of White through Foucault to Ricoeur, the essay disenchantment with narratives of truth in the argues that the turn to historical poetics aris- second part of the twentieth century, but also es not merely from a shift in historiographical the recognition of this state as a theoretical en- paradigms but from the way those shifts relate terprise that is itself linked to its historical mo- to wider changes in social and cultural history. ment. Maria Margaroni approaches this question by focusing on testimony as a text which The topic of the next section is the plural lines occupies a marginal position in the languages of theory inscribed in disciplinary and nation- of theory from which it acts to both shape and al traditions and the various crossings, migra- hinder theoretical reflection. Testimony, she ar-

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gues, grounds theory in a quest for critique that theory has passed through different routes remains aware of the conditions of its consti- and crossings. The idioms of the volume at- tution and recognises that reflexivity passes test to a diversity of languages, while the prac- through and simultaneously brings to light a tice of translation deployed by the authors is moment of blindness, rather than a moment made explicit through the evocation of debates of truth. Antonis Balasopoulos focuses on the and categories that stand beyond the limits of fundamental problem of the tension underly- Greek theory. ing the relationship between history and theory, which he defines in political terms as a rela- The articulation of these traditions in Greek tionship of domination. From Plato’s definition terms and in relation to local disciplinary and of chôra as a frame that links theory to class wider sociocultural contexts constitutes the domination, through the seventeenth-century most central contribution of the volume. The English engagement with theory as central to book offers an innovative encounter with con- the revolutionary subject, to De Man’s return temporary theory, which takes as its point of to Plato to unravel a rhetoric of mastery, the reference Greek intellectual and linguistic tra- tradition of theory utilises a rhetoric of domi- ditions. Such a move allows us to raise two nation but also acts to challenge this rhetoric questions with regard to our understanding and render it self-subverting. Apostolos Lam- of theory in Greek terms. The first relates to propoulos also engages with the relationship the distinctness of Greek engagements with between history and theory, which he views the western European and American tradi- from the perspective posed by the category of tions designated by the term theory: do these mourning. The proclaimed death of theory, he engagements allow us to discern a relative argues, must be viewed reflexively as language unity of Greek theoretical languages? In oth- and practice associated with a certain historical er words, in what sense, if any, can we speak time. Yet this historicity does not imply that the of “Greek” theory as a specific conceptual and dialogue with theory is a dialogue with things disciplinary field? The second question arises past. Theory rather operates between death from our assessment of this specificity. What and birth, and between past and present. As are the gains and losses of this act of transla- such, it designates a chôra that irrupts into the tion, and how could it move beyond the mere circle of mourning for “our” past: it fragments application of categories produced elsewhere? the categories of influence and identity, and Can a language of the periphery, an idiom for- acts instead to stress the heterogeneity and mulated through acts of translation and re- fragmentation of theoretical traditions. translation, act to challenge and affect, in turn, the languages it posits as originals? In the light of the last two essays, the term chôres in the book’s title acquires a complex meaning evoking at once the theoretical NOTE frames posed by the Greek linguistic, intellec- 1 Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe, tual and academic communities, and the poli- Princeton: Princeton UP, 2000, 17. tics of time associated with these frames. The plural form is itself political as it aptly indicates the absence of unity within the space of Greek theoretical traditions. The book suggests – indeed, indicates by its very form – that Greek

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gether Haussmannian restructurings in Par- is, fascist urban orderings in interwar Italy, the rationalistic schemes of Le Corbusier and the multitude of informal, spontaneous, some- Kostas Yannakopoulos and times illicit, microactions through which urban Yannis Yannitsiotis (eds) citizens appropriate public space, even provi- sionally, contest established uses and poten- Αμφισβητούμενοι χώροι στην tially contribute to the constitution of alterna- πόλη: Χωρικές προσεγγίσεις tive forms of social relations.

του πολιτισμού Leonidas Economou touches on processes of urbanisation of the urban fringe through the [Contested spaces in the city: example of Voula, on the southeastern coast spatial approaches to culture] of Attica. The state, local politicians and activists and landowners’ associations emerge as Athens: Alexandria and University the major agents in these processes, while the of the Aegean, 2010. 380 pp. importance of ownership in the formation of community and the huge transfer of resourc- Dina Vaiou es to individual owners emerges from the me- National Technical University of Athens ticulous description of Voula. Voula, like any place, is in many ways particular but not at This edited volume, Contested spaces in the city, all unique, as it follows patterns common to a is the outcome of a day-long conference organ- whole host of similar areas around the urban ised by the Department of Social Anthropolo- core of Athens in the interwar period. These gy and History of the University of the Aegean. patterns have been extensively studied and de- It contains a long introduction and ten papers bated in other areas of scientific enquiry, with loosely articulated around issues to do with the which Economou does not engage. social constitution of (urban) space and the different ways in which multiple spatialities in the Kostas Yannakopoulos discusses the constitu- city are continuously formed and contested. The tion of identity/difference through the process papers broadly place their arguments in eth- of habitation and appropriation of space, draw- nographies of material culture and approach ing from fieldwork in the area of Metaxourgio– the city as a contested space from different Keramikos–Gazi. The process he is concerned perspectives. The majority of contributions are with is the settlement of new middle classes embedded in Anglophone debates, from which in run-down/devalued areas of central Athens, ample references are summoned to support areas in which real estate agencies and con- the arguments put forward, while occasionally tractors are already in action, foreseeing and/ the Greek used reads like a “translation”. or mobilising processes of gentrification. In the emerging urban landscape, respondents who Stavros Stavrides briefly traverses two centu- identify as gay-lesbian-queer find in this area ries of urban planning/design ideas to argue “a central neighbourhood the built environment about the contested and negotiated character of which is not already determined mainly as of urban public space, through a range of dis- a space of familial normality” (132). For them, parate examples. These examples bring to- poor Greeks, different groups of migrants, gyp-

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sies, Pomaks and others who form the mosaic never exclusively heterosexual; they are rather of residents remain a distant scenery or an ur- sites where sexuality is performed, gets ex- ban void – which is attractive as long as it re- posed to the sight of “others” and excites reac- mains contained within “decent” proportions. tions – all of which destabilise its supposedly “private” character. In this sense, “a kiss is nev- Dimitris Parsanoglou and Elektra Petrakou er just a kiss” (218): “personal”/”private” de- bring to the foreground of their argumentation sires made public force us to rethink the ways young women and men of migrant origin and in which space is de- and recomposed through attempt to link ideas about social space, “sec- the performance of gendered identities. ond generation” and urban space as a site for the constitution of cultural identities. Aiming to Athena Athanasiou contributes yet another avoid an analysis which places individuals in al- original and interesting piece based on her re- ready established social categories, they study search with Women in Black in Belgrade. Her new forms of sociocultural expression in which argument is organised around five themes the site of reference is the city and not the ethnic which run through the entire paper: the poli- origin. They convincingly argue that the “spatial” tics of transgressive mourning and public fem- or “local” constitution of identities is an open or inist resistance to the dominant national poli- indirect form of struggle for inclusion, not only tics of memory and oblivion; the transforma- in (urban) space but also in the commons. tion of the urban square (a site par excellence of national normativity and nation myth) into Panos Panopoulos discusses the role of sound a space of intimacy and a public performance technology in the reconceptualisation of rela- of estrangement; the transgression of pub- tions and experiences in (contested?) urban lic/private boundaries through the embodied, spaces, like streets and schools. He argues gendered, performative politics of “improper” that devices like those studied in his paper (the mourning; the transformation of black cloth- Walkman and mobile phones) influence our ing, a conventional symbol of patriarchal fem- perceptions of public/private space and time: ininity, into a subversive practice; the ways in sound privacy in public space, public exposure which different stories contest one another of private listening and communication. Our for a place in history. According to Athanasi- perceptions of the city cross over/through par- ou, Women in Black show how urban spaces ticular soundscapes, permitting users to oper- linked to national memory may be recaptured ate in more than one space/s, creating spatial as heterotopias of resistance, which lay open links and drawing attention to sensations other and amplify the space of national memory as than visual ones. political space and space of politics.

Venetia Kantsa approaches space from a gen- Yannis Yannitsiotis presents the social confron- der and sexuality perspective, raising ques- tations around the localisation of an equestrian tions about the right to be “publicly” visible statue of Aris Velouchiotis in a central square through “private” choices, thereby problema- of Lamia. He uses this as a starting point to dis- tising analytically the distinction between pub- cuss processes of memory formation, which lic and private. Her fieldwork into lesbian spac- take place in particular times and spaces and es in Athens in the 1990s provides a coherent engage particular groups and individuals. Op- and interesting argument, both in theoretical positional mythologies, left and right in this and empirical terms, of how urban spaces are case, mobilise diverse disputes to do with re-

220 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME determinations of public memory in local soci- papers make extensive reference to Foucault’s ety and point to the importance of visibility and notion of heterotopia, which takes different con- location for the constitution of such memory. tents as it adjusts to different analyses. Further- more, almost all contributors pay homage to Pausanias Karathanasis locates his argument Lefebvre’s conception of space as socially pro- about contested spaces on the walls of build- duced and as a critical part of social relations: ings which are appropriated by graffitists. The the sociospatial dialectic strongly argued for analysis focuses on different types of graffiti by a number of prominent Anglophone Marx- and dominant perceptions about the walls of ist and critical geographers since the 1970s the city, summoning a Latourian approach, fol- and later rediscovered in other fields and dis- lowing which graffiti are thought to have agen- ciplines. This conception, however, is subse- cy, an assertion which is not persuasively an- quently lost or diluted in theoretical arguments alysed further. Karathanasis considers graffiti which are drawn from other theorists and dif- as a “classic case of transgressive behaviour ferent analytical and explanatory frameworks. in the city” (343), a case of “heretic geography” A case in point here is actor–network theory (343), a “result of a structured form of youth which attributes agency to nonhumans, there- urban culture” (344) which promotes different by obfuscating, contra Lefebvre, structures of perspectives and uses of space. domination in the process of constitution and contestation of different spaces and spatialities. Eleana Yalouri, finally, discusses the role of monuments in remembering and forgetting The papers develop interesting concepts and and the ways in which the past serves present perspectives about the city, which open many priorities in this process. Although built monu- areas of debate and comment. However, I would ments or monuments in space occupy a prom- like to conclude this review by raising an issue inent position in her argument, other types of which has to do with the constitution of a “sci- monuments are also mentioned (language, entific community” in Greece in the broad field of song, proverbs, narratives, etc.), as well as an- urban studies (or study of the urban). For histori- timonuments (for the Holocaust, for example). cal reasons to do with the development of vari- Here monuments are thought to be agents, ous fields and disciplines in this country, which with biographies and social lives, in the sense are beyond the scope of this brief review, this that they influence people, raising feelings of field has been populated for many decades by joy, fear, anger, sadness – thereby affecting scholars with a background in architecture and people’s social lives. Furthermore, they are not planning. A voluminous body of research has permanent or stable, but rather changing, mul- been formed and enriched over the years with tifaceted and subject to contestation, giving rise contributions from younger generations of re- to dialogues between past and present. searchers who grapple with some of the issues approached also in this volume. The contributors As already mentioned, the papers included in to this volume, however, only marginally engage this volume loosely follow a linking thread set with these “Greek debates”, hence precluding out by the editors, namely the “constitution of fruitful cross-fertilisation of theoretical argu- power and resistance through space and, con- ments and empirical findings. In my view, this is versely, the constitution of spatiality through a significant limitation of the volume, despite the power and resistance” (11). To engage with many positive aspects which make it a welcome spaces of contestation and resistance, most addition to the Greek literature on the subject.

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and acting in a given national context, while, at the same time, it defines itself as a Europe- an club, aiming to be considered among the best in Europe. Alexander Kitroeff After having outlined, in the first chapter, the Ελλάς, Ευρώπη, first years of the existence of Panathinaikos Παναθηναϊκός! 100 χρόνια and of sports in Greece, the author focuses, Ελληνικής Ιστορίας, 1908– in the following two chapters, on the insti- tutionalisation, initially, and the prevalence, 2008 thereafter, of football as the “king of sports”. In the fourth chapter, the author analyses the [Greece, Europe, period from 1945 to 1959, during which foot- Panathinaikos! A century of ball came of age. The sixth chapter covers the Greek history, 1908–2008] team’s six “golden” years, from 1960 to 1965, a period during which Panathinaikos dom- New York: Greekworks.com, inated the Greek football league. The sev- 2010. 344 pp. enth chapter recounts one of the greatest, if not the greatest, moments in the history of Pandelis Kiprianos Panathinaikos, the epic “playing at Wembley”, in the finals of the European Champion Clubs’ University of Patras Cup. In the eighth chapter, Kitroeff deals with what he terms the “end of an epoch”, which A professor of history and director of the Cen- means the years from Wembley to 1979, a tre for Peace and Global Citizenship at Have- period marked by the weakening of Panathi- ford College, Pennsylvania, Alexander Kitroeff naikos and by the transition of Greek football is also a long-time fan of the Athenian foot- – in 1979 – from a semiprofessional to a fully ball club Panathinaikos. The title of his book professional sport. declares his intention: to construct a centen- nial social history of one of the most impor- The book can certainly be read chronological- tant and popular Greek sporting clubs, and, ly, chapter by chapter, as a clear and pleasant from this standpoint, to provide an insight into narrative on the history of a club and its activi- Greek history. ties in a given national and international context, but it can also be seen as a portrait of in- Based on both primary (documents and in- terconnected issues concerning the whole of terviews with some of the protagonists) and Greek society. We will, hence, focus on some secondary sources, the book comprises elev- of these topics, analysed by the author, which en chapters, corresponding to the respective have not only marked football and sports but phases in the club’s history and the evolution Greek society as a whole. of Greek football. As suggested by the title, the history of Panathinaikos, according to the The ideological orientations of sporting lead- author, is viewed through two frames of refers until the eve of the Second World War erence, the Greek and the European. In other mirrored their preference for classical ath- words, Panathinaikos is a Greek club, playing letics, which were considered as the Greek

222 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME sport par excellence. “And this”, Kitroeff says, not a current phenomenon, although in re- “because classical athletics referred back to cent years it has increased. Violent phenom- ancient Greece and served the ideology of the ena can be identified particularly in the early historical continuity of Hellenism from antiq- games between Panathinaikos and Olympia- uity to the present. The use of classical ath- kos in the 1920s and 1930s. However, Kitroeff letics as an ideological tool led in 1934 to the says, violence began to increase after 1945. failed attempt to revive them, through events Related to violence and sporting passions are tailored to the way the ancient Greeks com- two issues: the organisation of football and peted” (83). This project was not adopted by the role of supporters. We know that, over the public, because football, especially after time, football lost its amateur character and the Asia Minor Catastrophe, kept on winning became more and more professional, a fact fans, and consequently football ended up be- which is reflected in the goals and practices of ing, as noted in a sports newspaper in 1932, the parties involved. This development is re- the “king of sports” in Greece. flected in the structure of the game, the pub- licity it enjoys, its rules, and, of course, the The appeal of football is also reflected in its salaries of the players and their perception political reception and use. We know that by society. The change has been so impor- Nikolaos Plastiras, two days before handing tant that, if we follow Johan Huizinga’s argu- over power to the Fourth National Assem- ment,2 we could say that football is no longer bly, made his last public appearance as lead- a game. er of the revolution on Sunday, 30 December 1923, among the masses watching the foot- This progress, marked by several episodes, ball match between Athens and Piraeus at the most prominent among them being the ex- velodrome in Neo Faliro.1 Since then, Kitroeff clusion by the competent authorities of most shows, the relationship between football and of the international football players from politics has remained complicated. Konstan- the Greek national team in 1953, an inci- tinos Karamanlis appeared in May 1956 at the dent that is the theme of Vasilis Georgiadis’ Cup game between Panathinaikos and Olym- well-known film Κυριακάτικοι ήρωες (Aces of piakos, at the Alexandras Avenue grounds: Football). This change continued through the “he cracked an Easter egg with the captains creation, in 1959, of the national champion- of the two teams and then immediately left” ship, which opened the way for “semiprofes- (85). Some years later, and after the period of sionalism” and, twenty years later, in 1979, of the dictatorship of the Colonels, who invested professional football companies and the tran- in football in order to keep some balance, the sition to professionalism. relationship between football and politics became closer. It is also important to recall that This development was not linear. A whole at various times many prominent politicians generation, incarnated by the emblematic (from Kostas Kotzias to George Rallis) served figure of the former player and club president on the Panathinaikos board. Apostolos Nikolaidis, attempted to salvage the values of amateurism and fair play. A re- Throughout the book, the author deals with a sult of this tradition, according the author, is topical aspect of football. Opposing a some- the continuing interest shown by Panathina- what romantic approach, which tends to ide- ikos in promoting a large number of sports alise the past, Kitroeff shows that violence is other than football. Here too, perhaps, are the

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origins of the epithet “vazeles”, a term for the deed, it could be said that it has worsened team’s fans which dates from the 1950s. “The with the exposure of the “paragka” (literally persistence in Panathinaikos,” Kitroeff writes, “shack”), a term, the author notes, which is “of the bourgeois-based ideal of fair play and used to describe match-fixing (275). distance that this maintained to popular violence (and one version of masculinity, too) Greek athletics, and football in particular, resulted in Panathinaikos supporters being are a mirror of the relations between Greeks called ‘Vaselines’, later ‘Vazeles’” (106). and “foreigners”, westerners and easterners. The image is reflected in the performance of Parallel to the nationalisation and profession- Greek teams at all levels, too. In the words of alisation of football, the process of organis- the author: “The world of Greek football stood ing supporters, particularly through the es- in awe and respect in the face of the power- tablishment of fan clubs, is worthy of con- ful countries and football teams of Europe. sideration. This organisation of supporters They were considered as standards and ex- played an influential role in the life of teams, amples to be imitated. This attitude had to do especially the “big ones”. “Fan clubs,” Kitroeff more with a general view on the relationship writes, “existed since the beginning of the first between Greece and Western Europe, which division. They were basically local organisa- constituted the ideal developmental and cul- tions in different areas of Athens which coor- tural model or, better, the source of different dinated and had a relationship with the club” models that the country had to embrace. The (152). The collective expression of feelings dissidents to this view, for ideological rea- from the stands, he continues, “took a more sons, considered the socialist countries of coordinated form early in the 1966-1967 sea- Eastern Europe as the key standards. In any son when a group of supporters gathered case, in the international football industry at the stand’s Gate 13. In 1968, Gate 13 was there were no ideological differences which founded as the first organised fan association intersected the East–West axis: everyone ad- in Greece, and it was the forerunner of the as- mired the big names of Europe as a whole” sociations that followed and multiplied after (163). 1981, when the Panhellenic Club of Panath- inaikos Friends (PALEFIP) was established. This picture is quite different from that of the political level, in which admiration for the I shall conclude with two critical issues, aptly West and particularly the European Union analysed by Kitroeff, which have always be- is overshadowed by its sceptical reception. set both Greek football clubs and Greek soci- This deviation can be read as an expression ety as a whole: the trust in institutions and the of the relative autonomy of sport from politi- relationship with the surrounding world. The cal ideologies. In any case, the participation of world of sports does not trust its own institu- Greek teams in European cup competitions tions. The distrust in football is paradigmati- created new conditions for Greek sports and, cally reflected in “the lord of the match”, the especially, football. “Thus, the European ori- referee, who should treat both teams fairly. entation of the club,” Kitroeff concludes, re- For this reason, until 1967 well-known for- ferring to Panathinaikos, “found a new field eign referees were asked to ref major match- of expression, especially with its first Euro- es. While the referees have been Greek since pean successes and, of course, the crown- then, the problem has not been solved; in- ing moment of its appearance in the Champi-

224 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME ons League final in 1971. Then, the successful course of the team over the coming decades has crystallised the view that Panathina- ikos is predominantly a ‘European’ team, the praiseworthy ambassador of domestic foot- Susan E. Alcock ball in Europe, in a period especially during which Greece was taking its place among the Αρχαιολογίες του ελληνικού countries of the European Community.” παρελθόντος: Τοπία, μνημεία και αναμνήσεις NOTES Athens: Alexandria, 2011. 407 pp. 1 Christos Hadziiossif, “Κοινοβούλιο και δικτα- τορία” [Parliament and dictatorship], in idem Archaeologies of the (ed.), Ιστορία της Ελλάδας του 20ού αιώνα: Ο με- Greek Past: Landscapes, σοπόλεμος 1922-1940 [The history of Greece Monuments and Memories in the twentieth century: the interwar years, 1922-1940], 2 vols, Athens: Vivliorama, 2003, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, vol 2/1:101. 2 Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the 2002. 222 pp. Play Element in Culture, Boston: Beacon 1955 (1938). Dimitris Plantzos University of Ioannina

Susan Alcock’s Archaeologies of the Greek Past, first published in 2002 and now translated into Greek, revisits Greek archaeology in an effort to investigate how successive ver- sions of the classical past – its earlier strata as it were – are “re-remembered” through material culture. Alcock’s endeavour was, back when the book was written, fuelled by more than a decade’s solid theoretical work on cultural memory and its collective man- ifestations, thus turning memory, hither- to deemed irrelevant to historical discourse and consequently banned from it, into a legitimate academic subject. Raphael Samuel’s Theatres of Memory, for one, taught modern historians that memory – rather than merely being “an image bank of the past” – is di- alectically related to history.1 Though Alcock does not seem to have consulted Samuel’s tour-de-force, she nonetheless subscribes

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to his main premise, though by now in se- timated (50). She then proceeds to “push” the rious risk of sounding frightfully stereotypi- memory discourse back in time, as far back cal, that remembering and forgetting the as the ancient Mediterranean. past is essential for the forging of individual and collective identities. As general inter- The author then begins her investigation of est in social remembering has been rising her chosen archaeologies, in the face of three since the early 1990s, novel ways of assess- case studies: the Roman province of Achaia, ing the past and its memory, especially within on the ambivalent encounter between clas- the nation framework, are constantly sought, sical Greece and classicising Rome, a game “where the general and the particular, epoch- of imperial politics played on a seemingly va- al and eventful, inform each other iteratively cant cultural landscape which was thorough- in scholarship as they do in life”.2 ly reinvented in order to be exploited; Hellen- istic and Roman Crete, a tale of two islands Alcock bases her research on Jan Assmann’s against the backdrop of their (revisited) Mi- central thesis on cultural memory and what noan past; and Messenia as the archaeologi- he termed the “memory culture” (Erinne- cal landscape of many an “imagined commu- rungskultur), that is the ways in which a giv- nity”, ethnic and cultural. Alcock’s accounts en society ensures cultural continuity through are thorough, lucid and thought provoking. repetitious, quasi-ceremonial reference to Archaeology – she maintains – is not mere- the past, thus allowing later generations to ly the sum of our digs, nor even the sum of reconstruct their collective cultural identity.3 our fully documented, abundantly illustrat- Through successive revisitings, memory thus ed catalogues. According to Alcock, archae- becomes the locus where the past takes its ologies ought to be meaningful accounts of shape. Maintaining that social memory pro- the past in view of the viable considerations vides any given society with an image for its of the present. Archaeologies are in fact, the past and “a plan for [its] future” (21, Greek edi- author contends, histories of landscapes, tion), Alcock embarks on her effort to recon- monuments and – beyond all that – memo- struct these images, plans and visions in the ries, a systematic rethinking of our primary past itself, that is an effort to reconstruct so- material sources. Inevitably, the study of social memory through the material remains of cial memory heralds for the classical archae- the very culture by which such memory was ologists their (grossly overdue) loss of inno- entertained. Her conviction may be described cence (295), the rather exhilarating admission as this: memory gains tactility through its that the past lies beyond its material remains. traces on the material culture; since the artefacts left behind by an ancient society are And this is when Alcock seems to be some- themselves the products of cultural mne- what missing the point. Some of her discus- monics, having been created as manifesta- sion in Archaeologies of the Greek Past de- tions of a shared past in the first place, then rives from her earlier, seminal book Grae- they may stand as memory’s material self cia Capta, published in 1993.4 There, Alcock (49). Alcock is right to state that, although used in exemplary fashion results obtained archaeologists have begun (at least back in through territorial surveys of mostly rural 2002) to comprehend the power hiding in Greek sites in order to suggest that “instead their data, social memory as a dynamic agent of a cultural haven, an imaginary world, or a in ancient societies remains largely underes- museum locked in spiritual twilight, Greece

226 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME under Roman rule must be understood as accuracy of such a comparison notwithstand- a society in the process of change, adapting ing, it would be rather interesting to have at and assimilating itself to a new position with- this point an exploration of how Pendlebury in an imperial system” (230). These adapta- might have forged his own Cretan cultural tions and assimilations are now retheorised, and sentimental involvement with the island in Archaeologies, within the cultural memo- and its past, or to what extent Cretan archae- ry discourse. This reviewer, however, cannot ologies were affected by the active presence avoid the suspicion that, even though Alcock’s of the Knossos curator who, as a British intel- readings of material culture are indeed most ligence service agent, was executed by Ger- perceptive, she takes cultural memory as yet man troops during the Battle of Crete (he was another artefact available to her scrutiny, a taken captive but was shot because he was material remain of the past to be excavated, mistaken for a Greek partisan). classified and interpreted. Her archaeologies are indeed the by now well-familiar, modern While Alcock is right to talk, reflecting on pre- archaeologies of a distant past, which we, as vious literature, of a certain “memory indus- independent academics of an uninvolved era, try” blossoming in interdisciplinary academia are free to discuss, critique and illuminate. in recent few decades, I would have hoped, however, for a more in-depth account of Alcock is obviously taking the point of an ar- how modern archaeologists “remember” chaeology in the Foucauldian sense, focusing what they know. This problem is far from re- on the processes, conscious or unconscious, solved, and although we now know that the and the ideological strategies deployed by lo- cultures we inhabit and the memories we in- cal communities in order to articulate their herit shape our archaeologies of the past – cultural identity along the collective memo- Greek or other – we are in no position to say ry/collective oblivion axis.5 Her discussion of exactly how this happens, and how it affects rural and civic landscapes as dynamic fields the integrity of our discourse. And this is a di- of cultural diversity in her work proves as rection we ought to be taking. much. One is left, however, with the paradox of having – as a historian – to treat ancient memories as modern histories. It is indica- NOTES tive that whereas in chapter 1 of Archaeolo- 1 Raphael Samuel, Theatres of Memory, vol. 1: gies the author admits that – far from being Past and Present in Contemporary Culture, Lon- agents of objective wisdom – archaeologists don and Lew York: Verso, 1994, x. and historians alike are often responsible for the invention, the rewriting, or the erasure of 2 Jeffrey K. Olick, States of Memory: Continui- monuments, landscapes or texts (73–74), the ties, Conflicts, and Transformations in National agency of the present archaeologist/historian Retrospection, Durham and London: Duke UP, is virtually absent from the detailed accounts 2003, 5. that follow. As a matter of fact, the author be- 3 Chiefly, Jan Assmann, “Kollektives Gedächtnis gins her Cretan chapter with a critique, rather und kulturelle Identität”, in Jan Assmann and harsh, of a previous author – John Pendle- Tonio Hölscher (eds), Kultur und Gedächtnis, bury (1904–1941), who compared, in his 1939 Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1988, 9–19; Jan Ass- book The Archaeology of Crete,6 Roman Crete mann, Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, with its idolised Bronze Age precursor. The Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen

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Hochkulturen, Munich: Beck, 1992; Jan Ass- mann, “Collective Memory and Cultural Identi- ty”, New German Critique 65 (1995), 125–33. 4 Susan E. Alcock, Graecia Capta: The Landscapes Polymeris Voglis of Roman Greece, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. Η ελληνική κοινωνία στην 5 Michel Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, His- Κατοχή 1941–1944 tory”, in Donald F. Bouchard (ed.), Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and [Greek society during the Interviews, Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1977, 139–64. occupation, 1941–1944] 6 John D. Pendlebury, The Archaeology of Crete: An Introduction, London: Methuen, 1939, 365. Athens: Alexandria, 2011. 182 pp. Nikos Tzafleris University of Athens

Polymeris Voglis’ study fulfils the role of a comprehensive synopsis of the historiography on the turbulent years of the Second World War and the Axis occupation of Greece. His study, however, goes far beyond that to serve as a textbook for the university student and an introduction for the broader audience to the public discussion on that historical period. Rather, and above all, it serves as a solid basis for new research in the field since it incorporates much of the enormous body of contemporary biblio- graphic production – particularly since 1990 – on the subject, which Voglis critically utilises to summarise, chronologically and thematically, the most significant events of that complex period. Moreover, he emphasises the points where contemporary research surpasses or refutes older historiographical givens.

Being himself part of a younger generation of historians, who, with no living memory of the past, enjoy the advantage of being at a safe distance from the facts, Voglis has dared to write a balanced analysis, away from the polemics, demagogy and extremes of past generations, who were bound by their political affiliation and their personal involvement in the events.

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The historiography of the last two decades are lent relations of Greeks with the country’s mi- Voglis’ primary reservoir of sources and ar- norities, which overturns the embellished view guments. We may discern five basic axes in of the close relations between Jews and Chris- his narrative: the refuting of myths by utilising tians, reveals a widespread anti-Semitism and professional historiographical interpretations the hostile behaviour in general against these which are based more on primary sources unwanted compatriots. than on political and ideological polemics; the placing of society and social history at the cen- The very title of the book prepares the read- tre of his analysis; the incorporation of local di- er for the writer’s intentions. Society lies at the mensions into the wider historical framework, centre of the analysis. Voglis follows the most hence enriching the general picture; the com- significant methodological turn in the historiog- parison of how cities and the countryside ex- raphy in the last two decades: the shift from po- perienced occupation; and the use of the con- litical and military to social history. His aim is to cept of violence as a key interpretative tool in focus on the developments within Greek soci- the historical appraisal of the period. ety during the occupation which resulted from the special conditions of wartime and the so- Voglis demonstrates rather clearly that the em- cial reality of interwar Greece. The hundreds of bedded memory that is based more on myth thousands of refugees from Asia Minor had not and less on the study of the archival sources been fully integrated into Greek society while no longer suffices for the interpretation of his- a number of minorities were still trying to find tory. In this new historiography, the Albanian their place in the new environment of northern epic (the victories of the Greek forces in the Al- Greece. The military occupation by three totali- banian front against the invading Italians), was tarian regimes, which occurred within the con- not only the result of the enthusiasm and hero- text of a global, multifrontal, totalitarian war, ism of the Greek soldiers but also the outcome added to the social tensions of interwar Greece. of certain factors, such as the underprepared- ness and faulty strategic choices of the Italian Voglis’ chapter on the dismantling of the econ- army; the particular morphology of the terrain omy joins the debate within Greek historiog- and the harsh climate conditions that prevent- raphy for a more complete study and evalu- ed the full development of large forces; and the ation of the economy of that period. In place numerical superiority of the Greek army af- of the once fragmented historiography of the ter its full mobilisation in the first stages of the wartime looting of the country, and the result- conflict. Moreover, society was quick to organ- ing famine, death and the black market, new ise and mobilise itself, a fact that should partly studies have emerged on subjects such as be attributed to the mass participation in asso- forced labour inside Greece and on labour that ciations such as the National Youth Organisa- was forced or went voluntarily to work in the tion (EON), built up in the interwar period under the Reich, economic collaboration and the use Metaxas’ authoritarian regime.1 The battle of of Greek industry to support the German war Crete did not really delay the German invasion economy. Amid the dismantling of the econo- of the Soviet Union. Contemporary research my and the deadly famine of the first winter un- focuses more on the unprecedented participa- der occupation (1941–1942), the situation with- tion of the local population in this battle and on in Greek society was explosive: the tradition- German retaliation against civilians. Moreover, al civic political forces were locked in dispute Voglis explores recent research on the turbu- over their political leverage in postwar Greece

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and, like the collaborationist government, they which adopted the tactic of collective responsi- seemed incapable of handling the situation. bility in response to partisan attacks.

It was at that time that new political forces The fate of the minorities during the occupa- came into the picture, the National Liberation tion remained a taboo for earlier historical ac- Front (EAM) being the most important of all, counts. The occupation brought to the surface placing resistance and national liberation at the conflicts that had formed during the interwar forefront. The struggle for survival in the cities period, when the Greek state implemented a caused the first collective reactions against the policy of national homogenisation by hellenis- occupiers (strikes, demonstrations and con- ing the “new territories”, those regions in north- sumers’ cooperatives). The radical antifascist ern Greece annexed from the Ottoman Empire ideological character of the resistance organi- from 1912 onwards. During the occupation the sations unified the masses and it was the ΕΑΜ unfortunate fate of the minorities was decided, that succeeded in uniting most of these forces with the exception of the Muslims of Thrace. On and organising most of the resistance actions. the initiative of the Germans and with the partic- Voglis attempts to interpret the resistance as ipation of the state, the majority of Greek Jews a total social phenomenon, decisive for the de- was exterminated, while the Chams (an Alba- velopments within Greek society under occupa- nian-speaking minority in Greek Epirus) were tion. He tries to explain the characteristics which persecuted by the National Republican Greek made this movement so popular and massive League (EDES). In the case of the Slavo-Mac- by turning to the social basis of the power which edonians, opposing forces within the minority helped it emerge. Lastly, he demonstrates the led to some of its members to join EAM and social, political and cultural changes that the others to participate in armed collaboration. EAM brought to wartime Greece. From 1990 onwards, there has been an abun- It is due to the social conditions of the occu- dance of studies analysing the social condi- pation that, according to Voglis, EAM prevailed tions at a local level under occupation. In his over other organisations but also met with the study, Voglis takes advantage of this and in- reaction of the anti-EAM forces. The collapse corporates the local differences and particu- of state institutions expanded the EAM’s pop- larities into the general historiographical pic- ular leverage as it succeeded to implement, ture of that period. This leads us to appreciate within the regions it controlled and alongside the complexity of the occupation, the special the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS), characteristics of every region of the country institutions that enabled the direct participa- and, thus, helps us build a more comprehen- tion of the people in political affairs. These in- sive narrative. The historiographical interpre- stitutions introduced citizens to the idea of ac- tations based on local archives have revealed tive participation in public affairs, with the re- the different, indeed political, characteristics of sult that local societies controlled – but were the resistance movement in different parts of also controlled by – EAM. The relation of ELAS the country. This turn has reformed the his- with local societies was one of codependence toriographical context of the confrontation be- because it relied on them for supplies but also tween resistance and the occupier, the conflict protected them from the occupiers. However, among resistance groups and the organisa- it was also a relationship that was often tested tion of the armed collaborationist groups. For due to the retaliations of the occupation forces, instance, EDES’ armed wing was organised

230 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME more on local kinship structures with each en- The concept of violence as an epistemological joying relative autonomy and less on a politi- interpretive tool is central to Voglis’ analysis, as cal power centre, as was the case with ELAS. it is the case for the total of the historiography of the period. A society under occupation is a typi- Moreover, Voglis points to the scarcity of stud- cally violent society; violence prevails as a to- ies on Athens, which mainly cover the first pe- tal social phenomenon in every aspect of dai- riod of the famine but have little to say about ly life and implicates society as a whole. In this 1943–1944, when civil violence and conflict context of violence, Voglis studies at the same with the occupier moved from the mountains time armed collaboration with the occupier, civil to the neighbourhoods of the capital. Howev- conflicts and German retaliations. The violence er, Voglis fails to incorporate recent research that arose from the socioeconomic conditions on the different economic characteristics of the of the occupation, famine and disease brought occupation in different areas of the country.2 about the violence of the resistance. German cleansing operations and the widespread retali- Another element of Voglis’ narrative is the par- ation against civilians as a direct result of resist- allel approach that he takes to unveil the dif- ance actions created high tensions between lo- ference between the city and the countryside. cal communities and EAM/ELAS. The impres- He distinguishes between guerrilla warfare sive growth of EAM/ELAS and its adoption of a in the mountains and resistance in the cities. hostile stance towards other resistance groups The former took its characteristics from pil- led to a violent clash between them and, then, lage and a “tradition of mutiny” in the country- the latter to collaborate with the Germans. The side, but during the occupation it gradually ac- belief of some politicians and the collaboration- quired more political and ideological charac- ist government – fuelled by the Germans – that teristics, when rebel groups were formed as EAM was planning to seize power after the war, military branches of the resistance organisa- resulted in the arming of the Security Battal- tions, gradually developing more political ob- ions and several other anti-communist groups. jectives. The latter was more conspiratory and Lastly, the purpose of civil violence between emerged according to the special socioeco- EAM and anti-EAM groups – which gradually nomic conditions in the occupied urban area, implicated all levels of Greek society – was the as previously mentioned. He stresses the fam- political control of the country after liberation. ine among the working class and the impover- ishment of the middle class as wealth moved In the last year of the occupation, Athens was from the city to the countryside through the ex- the field of the most violent clashes between tensive networks of the black market, especial- ΕΑΜ, the collaborationist anticommunist ly in the first period of the occupation. Moreo- groups and the German forces. As liberation ver, he underlines the massive flows of popu- came closer, civil unrest increased, on the foot lations during the occupation and distinguishes of accusations from each side about intentions between those that went from the cities to the of the other to seize power. After the German villages through black-market networks dur- withdrawal, the British took over and, joined by ing the first winter of the occupation and the the anti-EAM forces, faced EAM during the Bat- flight from the countryside due to German re- tle of Athens, in which the latter was defeated. taliations, cleansing operations and scorched earth tactics, which were applied mostly after The events of December 1944 are a landmark the spring–summer of 1943. in the history of the occupation. Not only do

231 Book Reviews

they mark the defeat of the EAM coalition and την περίοδο της κατοχής (1941–1944) [Survival the dissolution of ELAS, but they were also de- and resistance in Volos during the Axis occupa- scribed in the official discourse as the “second tion, 1941–1944], unpublished PhD dissertation, round” of the civil conflict, purportedly caused University of Thessaly, 2007. by KKE in order to seize power by force (the “first round” was the civil conflict between EAM/ ELAS and other resistance groups and the “third round” was the 1946–1949 civil war). This concept resumed after 1989, when the communist Left was connected to totalitarianism and was virtually equated to fascism. In any case, as Voglis rightly puts it, this is an ideological interpretation of history which is not based on the historical context of that period or the special conditions of the occupation.

NOTES 1 Giorgos Margaritis, Από την ήττα στην εξέγερση: Ελλάδα Άνοιξη 1941–Φθινόπωρο 1942 [From defeat to uprising: Greece, Spring 1941–Au- tumn 1942], Athens: Politis, 1993, 31–47. 2 Until recently, the literature was focused on the case of Athens in order to explain phenomena such as the survival of the urban population through black-market networks, the role of Greek industry during the occupation, labour mobilisa- tions, the sending of labour to the Reich and economic collaboration with the occupier. However, more recent research has tried to explore famine in the large urban centres of the country, the role and contribution of the industrial periphery to the Greek industry as a whole, the survival and resistance of the workers inside the factories and how the network of the economic collaboration with the occupiers and of the exploitation of the country’s resources by the Axis powers spread to other regions outside of Athens. Maria Kavala, Η Θεσσαλονίκη στη γερμανική κατοχή (1941–1944): κοινωνία, οικονομία, διωγμός Εβραίων [Thessalo- niki under German occupation, 1941–1944: society, economy, persecution of the Jews], unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Crete, 2009; Nikos Tzafleris, Επιβίωση και αντίσταση στο Βόλο

232 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME

or alleged collaborationists. However, even in this case, discussions about cooperation with the Nazis soon faded, in favour of a narrative stressing liberation by the Soviet Union.1 Stratos Dordanas It took more than two decades for a reapprais- Η γερμανική στολή στη al of the issue of European collaboration. Un- ναφθαλίνη: Επιβιώσεις του doubtedly, the spirit of the generation of 1968 δοσιλογισμού στη Μακεδονία played a significant role, since it was a generation that instinctively refused to accept their 1945–1974 parents’ version of most things and of the Sec- ond World War in particular. It is probably not a [The German uniform in coincidence that one of the forerunners of this mothballs: Collaborationism’s reappraisal was an outsider, the American his- survival in Macedonia, 1945– torian Robert Puxton: his book Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944 represented 1974] a turning point in contemporary historiography of the Second World War, in the sense that it Athens: Estia, 2011. 526 pp. highlighted the domestic factors of collaborationism, while at the same time questioning Loukianos Hassiotis de Gaulle’s argument that French cooperation Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with the Nazis was limited.2 Many more similar works followed, focusing not only on collabo- European collaboration with Nazi Germany ration during the war, but also on the fate that has always been a prickly matter. The official awaited collaborationists in the postwar peri- postwar narrative in Western Europe was or- od. Historiographical interest in the issue has ganised around the notions of “national resis- indeed risen in recent decades. After the end of tance” against German occupation or/and the the Cold War, a reappraisal of several neglect- British and American contribution to the defeat ed aspects of the Second World War gave rise of fascism, while in Eastern Europe dominant to the revival of public debates over the expe- narratives combined the decisive role of the rience and the challenges of the 1940s. More- Red Army and the Soviet Union with (commu- over, this interest, both scientific and public, re- nist or “popular”) resistance against local “fas- flects a tendency to review memories of the cist” or “reactionary” regimes. Given that the Second World War itself, as they were con- governing elites in the West were mostly constructed afterwards in each individual country cerned with reconstruction, the continuity of and in Europe as a whole. The reappraisal of the the state apparatus, security and political sta- memory of the war also includes, obviously, the bility, discussions about collaborationism and issue of collaboration, and it is often – albeit not on the role of collaborationists in the Nazi “new always – free of older stereotypes, such as, for order” or the Holocaust were considered coun- example, the quantitative and qualitative down- terproductive. On the other hand, in the new grading of cooperation with the enemy, or the “people’s republics” ethnic cleansing and the concept of a “nationwide” resistance. Thus, over seizure of power by communist parties actu- the last few years we have witnessed a rela- ally promoted the punishment of either actual tive increase in historical publications research-

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ing the stories of Nazi collaborators and their torship. Thus, as Dordanas accurately notes, the subsequent fate, usually in the context of the question became “an open wound in the body of domestic crisis that European societies expe- Greek society” (409). The return to democracy rienced during the 1940s, and of the new bal- made possible the historical reappraisal of col- ance of power that emerged with the Cold War.3 laborationism and of the fate of collaborationists, but the relevant discussion remained ob- This tendency is also evident in Greece, al- scured for political or personal reasons. though the respective historiographical production has been comparatively limited to date. Dordanas’ book illuminates several aspects of Although we have witnessed an increase in the the issue, focusing on the case of collabora- number of articles (as well as MA or PhD dis- tionists who were active in Greek Macedonia. sertations) dealing with collaborationism and His major advantage is that he intercrosses the way in which postwar societies encoun- important and generally inaccessible sources tered it, monographs remain limited both in from judicial, diplomatic (Greek and foreign), number and in scope. Two of them were pub- military, prison, hospital or private archives as lished in the early 1980s (i.e., in the period when well as the press and other publications of the postwar leftwing narratives on occupation and period under consideration. resistance flourished, after decades of censorship and proscription), by ex-members of the The first five chapters of the book examine the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and Greek efforts to secure justice after liberation from People’s Liberation Army (ELAS). The more re- foreign occupation, initially by the National Lib- cent books on the same issue were written by eration Front (EAM) and later by the official Stratos Dordanas and Tasos Kostopoulos.4 state authorities, pointing to the problems and contradictions of such an enterprise. The writ- This relative lack of published work on the is- er describes how the civil war shifted the inter- sue of collaborationism in Greece can been est in the prosecution of the collaborationists, partly attributed to technical reasons such as enabling them to exploit the circumstances in the lack of relevant sources or the inability to order to move, once more, against leftists, but access them. At the same time, it is generally also to win the support – or at least the toler- accepted that it has to do with other factors as ance – of those who were supposed to arrest well, such as fear of reactions (or even com- and try them. Of particular significance is his plaints) as well as the strong emotional reac- reference to the “certification industry”, man- tions and the polemic that continues to accom- aged by ministers, deputies, military or police pany the debate on this issue. Of course, these officers and other members of the national or factors are by no means irrelevant to develop- local elites of the time, regarding the political ments around the issue of collaborationism in and ideological beliefs of the accused collab- postwar Greece, that is the general impunity of orationists. These certifications are reminis- Nazi collaborators and, moreover, their integra- cent of the public declarations of repentance or tion into the postwar regime, in some cases in loyalty to the postwar regime, or even the let- the forefront and in some in the rearguard of the ters of gratitude of minors to Queen Frederica. anti-communist struggle. These developments, All of them, one could argue, represent com- although by no means linear, actually prohibit- mon symbols of submission to the post-civil ed public discussion on the issue of collabora- war state, while at the same time reflecting the tionism until the collapse of the colonels’ dicta- kind of patron–client relationships that were

234 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME constructed during this period. The sixth chap- and does not seek to impress. His contribution, ter describes how such relationships permit- therefore, to the study of collaboration and of its ted later ex-collaborationists (like, for example, memory is unequivocal; hopefully, his work will Sotirios Gotzamanis, Theodoros Tourkovasilis, soon find followers among colleagues engaged Konstantinos Papadopoulos or Dimitrios Theo- in modern Greek and European history. charidis) to participate in the political landscape, besides giving them the possibility to appoint some of their supporters to the public sector. In NOTES this way, according to the writer, “the ethniko- 1 Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twen- fron [national-minded] state closed up its ranks tieth Century, London, Penguin, 1998, 233–240; with new and willing anticommunists and pure István Deák, Jan Tomasz Gross, Tony Judt (eds), patriots” (278). The following chapter narrates The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II the exposure of this system in the mid-1960s, and its Aftermath, Princeton UP, 2000, and Clau- particularly in Greek Macedonia, after Grigoris dio Pavone, “The General Problem of the Continu- Lambrakis’ murder, in which a number of ex- ity of the State and of the Legacy of Fascism”, in collaborationists were implicated. The ques- Jonathan Dunnage (ed.), After the War: Violence, tion of collaboration with Nazi Germany was Justice, Continuity and Renewal in Italian Society, revived, albeit only temporarily, since the col- Market Harborough, Troubador, 1999, 5–20. onels’ dictatorship (chapter 8) tackled it in the 2 Robert Puxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and way that best fitted its ideological principles, New Order, 1940–1944, New York, Knopf, 1972. that is with the official recognition of ex-collaborationists as resistance fighters (against “for- 3 For a brief synopsis of the postwar debate over eign” and “interior” enemies of the nation). The collaboration and resistance, see the preface relationship between collaborationists and the by Tony Judt in The Politics of Retribution in Eu- colonels remains a very intriguing question; in- rope, and in particular, vii–xii. For the French deed I believe that a specialised essay on the is- case, see the classic Henry Rousso, Le Syn- sue would give us very interesting data about drome de Vichy: De 1944 à nos jours, Paris: the continuities in the Greek extreme rightwing Editions du Seuil, 1990. political milieu since the Second World War. Fi- 4 Nikos Karkanis, Οι δωσίλογοι της κατοχής: Δίκες nally, in the last chapter, the author attempts an παρωδία (ντοκουμένατα-αποκαλύψεις-μαρτυρίες) approach to the construction of contemporary [Collaborationists during the occupation: mock- public memory regarding collaborationists. His ery trials (documents–disclosures–testimo- case study refers to the ceremonies that take nies)], Athens, Synchroni Epochi, 1981; Yannis K. place in the town of Kilkis, where the memory Douatzis, Οι Ταγματασφαλήτες: Ντοκουμέντα από of either biological or ideological descendants τα αρχεία τους που τεκμηριώνουν την εγκληματική of those accused of or condemned as collab- τους δράση στην Εύβοια τα χρόνια της Κατοχής [The orationists clashes with the corresponding Security Battalions: documents from their ar- agents of the leftwing narrative. chives proving their criminal activity in Evia during the occupation], Athens, Tolidis, 1983; Tasos Ko- In short, the author manages to provide a con- stopoulos, Η αυτολογοκριμένη μνήμη: Τα Τάγματα vincing picture of the fate of the collaboration- Ασφαλείας και η μεταπολεμική εθνικοφροσύνη ists in postwar Greece. Significant features in [The self-censored memory: the Security Bat- his work are his calm and methodical approach talions and postwar ethikofrosini], Athens: Filis- and his detached style that avoids denunciations tor, 2005; Stratos N. Dordanas, Έλληνες εναντίον

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Ελλήνων: Ο κόσμος των Ταγμάτων Ασφαλείας στην κατοχική Θεσσαλονίκη, 1941–1944 [Greeks against Greeks: the Security Battalions’ world in occupied Thessaloniki,1941–1944], Thessaloniki: Epikentro, 2006. We should also add the collec- Sotiris Walden tive volume by Iakovos Michailidis, Ilias Nikolako- poulos and Hagen Fleischer (eds), «Εχθρός» εντός Παράταιροι εταίροι: των τειχών. Όψεις του δωσιλογισμού στην Ελλάδα Ελληνική δικτατορία, της Κατοχής [‘Enemy’ within the gates: Aspects of κομμουνιστικά καθεστώτα και collaboration in occupied Greece], Athens, Ellinika Grammata, 2006, as well as a couple of unpub- Βαλκάνια 1967–1974 lished monographs: Eleni Haidia, Ο δωσιλογισμός στη Μακεδονία: Τα πρακτικά των δικών των [Unseemly partners: δωσιλόγων, 1945–1946 (Collaborationism in Mac- The Greek dictatorship, edonia: The records of the collaborationists’ tri- communist regimes and the als, 1945–1946), MA thesis, Thessaloniki, Aristo- tle University of Thessaloniki, 1995, and Dimitris Balkans, 1967–1974] Kasouris, Une épuration ordinaire (1944–1949): Athens: Polis, 2009. 800 pp. Histoire des procès des collaborateurs en Grèce, unpublished PhD thesis, Paris, L’École des Hau- Yiorgos Stathakis tes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2009. University of Crete

Sotiris Walden’s book has been much awaited, for two reasons. Firstly, because it refers to the period of the dictatorship in Greece, an underre- searched period to which any fresh contribution is welcomed. Secondly, because it examines an issue, that is, the relations of the dictatorship with the communist world, which at the time raised a lot of debate among the political movements that were fighting the regime in Greece, and primarily among the Left-oriented student movement, which was inclined to favour the political and economic isolation of the country, both from Western and Eastern Europe.

Political isolation from Western Europe had started to produce results, with the expulsion of Greece from the Council of Europe in late 1969. Economic relations, on the other hand, were not affected, despite the “freezing” of the association agreement with the Common Mar- ket. Until 1973, the Greek economy continued

236 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME to have an impressive growth pattern, which were determined by politics. Yet, there is not was based on investment and exports directed much to be added. As the Greek economy was to the Western European market and tourism experiencing a boom period, in which most of coming from the same market. The “opening the trade was developing with Western Europe, to the East” of the Athens regime and the re- the relative role of Eastern Europe rather de- sponse of the communist bloc was of crucial clined. The study is very certain and conclusive importance in terms of breaking its political on this point. In economic terms there is no indi- isolation, while in economic terms it was less cation that there was either growth or a special certain, at the time, how important it was. development of any kind. In economic terms, relations developed practically after 1974. Here then is an excellent study using practically most of the available diplomatic records Economics is not the key in order to explain and other sources to investigate the changing political relations. That is why and under what pattern of the relations of the regime in Ath- circumstances political initiatives were taken, ens with the communist Balkan and Central what were the primary objectives of the dic- European countries, the USSR and China. It is tatorship for such political “openings”, why did a study on political and international relations, the communist world respond in specific ways not on economic relations, which are obviously and to what extent international factors influ- discussed, but in a separate chapter. There is enced the changing pattern of these relations. also an extensive record of the bilateral rela- The book provides a very extensive and de- tions of Greece with each and every country at tailed account of these relations, distinguish- the end of the book. Finally, there is a detailed ing three subperiods: the first two years, when account of certain areas of economic coopera- many economic and political relations were tion in fields such as energy, tourism, transport “frozen”, followed by the period from 1970 to and some others. Yet the primary focus of the 1972, when there was an obvious “opening” of book is on the diplomatic and political relations the dictatorship towards the communist world, and how the changing architecture of interna- and, finally, the last three years (1972–1974), tional relations affected the specific relations of which was a rather inconsistent phase. the Athens regime with the communist world. The international framework was full of ma- The conclusion is, more or less, expected and jor events of crucial importance. It was a pe- well documented. There is nothing special about riod when the Cold War was undermined by the economic relations of Greece with the East- a gradual shift towards peaceful coexistence. ern bloc. Preexisting patterns continued, with Yet, the ongoing conflicts were intense. The some short intervals. Eastern Europe had been war in Vietnam, the two Arab–Israeli wars, the very important in the past as a market for spe- Soviet–Chinese conflict, the Soviet interven- cific agricultural products. Actually Greece had, tion in Czechoslovakia, the intervention in Chile in relative terms, among the Western European and other political developments were of ma- countries, by far the highest share of trade with jor importance. The opening of the US to Chi- the East. Trade was not done through free ex- na and the opening of China to the rest of the change, but through the restrictive clearing sys- world were also crucial. Of primary importance tem. Thus, it had to be more or less balanced in the Greek context was, of course, the Cyprus and a certain pattern of trade was already there, question, where the dictatorship was working which continued with minor fluctuations that on the removal of President Makarios.

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The basic proposition of the book is the fact that completely to a Western orientation, Romania the relations of the dictatorship with the com- searched for an independent role and Albania munist world were determined primarily by left the Warsaw Pact altogether. Bulgaria was the initiatives taken by the Greek side, rather the only Balkan country to openly support the than vice versa. The communist camp offered Soviet Union, but at a cost of being isolated. a rather constant response. It retained its po- Within this disintegrating framework, all coun- lemic against the Greek regime, all the way tries sought new “openings”, and the Mediter- through. Yet at the same time, it was positive ranean world was an obvious one. to the idea of keeping normal economic relations in place and offered a positive response to During 1969, this became evident. The Soviet specific common projects in energy, transport Union was under pressure and the policy shift and other sectors. It also favoured the normali- towards Greece was underway, as was the sation of political relations, which included cul- case with East Germany, which was among tural exchanges and other agreements. Thus, its closest allies and until then had no formal most of the explanation of the changes lies with relations with Greece. There were concrete the more systematic analysis of the changing signs in favour of normalising relations with perceptions and initiatives of the dictatorship. the Greek regime. This is what the book does for each subperiod. Yet 1970 and 1971 became the period when Until the end of 1969, the Greek dictatorship did the “opening to the East” of the Athens regime not question existing relations. It made assur- took place. It was in any case the peak peri- ances that political change was an internal mat- od of the dictatorship. It strengthened its rela- ter for Greece, that it would keep its Nato obliga- tions with Washington after its expulsion from tions and would keep good relations with coun- the Council of Europe, improved its relations tries with a different political system. Yet anti- with Ankara and responded positively to Chi- communism had been presented as the main na’s openings in the Balkans and the Mediter- reason for the army’s intervention and was the ranean countries. Even more, peaceful coexis- predominant element in the new regime’s ide- tence was underway. ology. Thus, in the first phase existing relations were affected. Companies with agreements From December 1969 to February 1970 the with Eastern Europe were all viewed with sus- Western press talked about the “opening to picion and any economic relations were scruti- the East” of the Greek Colonels, probably ex- nised as being potentially threatening to politi- aggerating the situation. This period was also cal stability. The same is also true for the other marked by the official visit of the Bulgarian for- side. The communist bloc was very polemical eign minister in May 1970. Yet with regard to against the dictatorship and its American pa- the Soviet Union, the warm period did not last. trons. It insisted that it had negatively affected After the assassination attempt on Makarios economic relations, including tourism. in March, Soviet–Greek relations were again “frozen”. The relations with the Eastern bloc Then, gradually, the regime stabilised its rule became primarily a Balkan affair. and the pressure from Western Europe increased. The 1968 Soviet invasion of Czecho- By 1971 there was a lot of mobility in the Bal- slovakia presented a whole range of prob- kans. Diplomatic relations were established for lems for the Soviet bloc. Yugoslavia turned the first time with Albania. There were impor-

238 HISTOREIN (2011) 11 VOLUME tant relations with Bulgaria, with mutual visits cancelled. In any case, the fact that Ioannidis of foreign ministers. Romania became another was the strongman behind the scenes made country that received a visit during 1971 from the standard diplomatic processes less func- the Greek foreign minister. At a point there was tional. During this last period, the whole of the the idea of a Balkan cooperation project, but the communist bloc, including Yugoslavia, became idea never really took off. In effect this mobility very critical of the Athens regime. had no real economic effect or any significant political outcome. However, it was success- Another question refers to the Greek Left and ful as a form of political communication. The the way it responded to the developing rela- “opening to the East” was an issue taken with tions which undermined the isolation objec- the support of Britain and the US and, likewise, tive. The non-communist movement was very the Soviet Union backed Bulgaria in its efforts. quick to criticise this approach, arguing for the independent, “third way” between the two su- There is little doubt that the communist world perpowers. Yet, after some time they tended to in the Balkans was falling apart. Albania had view this “opening” as a trick on the part of the a new relationship with China, Yugoslavia had dictatorship, taken in order to counteract the moved towards the West, Romania had cho- political isolation imposed by Western Europe sen a more independent stance within the and to keep up American pressure on Western Warsaw Pact and Bulgaria remained very pro- Europe for a softer political treatment. Soviet. Within this disintegrating atmosphere, the “opening” policy of the Colonels was a new The Communist Party of Greece (KKE), already political space, where no country, given the ex- split in two, turned the issue into another area isting conflicts between them, would leave for of ideological conflict. The eurocommunist the others. In the long, second part of the book, KKE (Interior) was more critical of these re- there is some excellent analysis of the rela- lations. Although it was careful to support the tions with each and every country, of the suc- processes of peaceful coexistence already un- cessive changes of policy and the very specific derway, it insisted, however, on a stricter pol- type and areas of exchanges that were, in each icy towards undemocratic regimes such as case, important. the one in Greece. The pro-Soviet KKE (Exte- rior) did not question the policies of the Soviet In the third and final subperiod, there was a bloc, and at the same time it was very critical six-month term in 1972 when relations were of the KKE (Interior) on this issue, as it thought not good because of the facilities provided to that the latter was adopting double standards the US Navy in Athens, an event which pro- on the same subject. In addition, it viewed the duced a lot of tension. Then in the second half, development of such relations as a potential until November 1973, relations became nor- weapon against the official anti-communist mal again. After the coming to power of Dim- ideology of the regime. itris Ioannidis, things became more intense, reaching their worst point with the events in The final question treated is this very founda- Cyprus. During the Ioannidis period, there was tion of the foreign policy of the dictatorship, not a single political exchange. Economic re- given that most officers had little if any idea of lations were undermined as the agreements or experience in such activities. To what extent that had been reached in the previous period can their foreign policy be taken seriously. The concerning important new projects were all response to this question is the continuation

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of the diplomatic service and the use of diplo- mats as acting foreign ministers, irrespective of which officer seemed be in charge. This explains part of the story, because the study of the Cypriot question, which was the main issue where the dictatorship developed its own ideas, was a tragedy. Yet this question re- quires a more comprehensive analysis of both Greek–Turkish and Greek–Cypriot relations.

In conclusion, this excellent book provides the most comprehensive analysis of the subject under examination. It is guaranteed to remain a permanent reference for future research on the politics and economics of the dictatorship. And such research is very much needed.

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