This book examines the role of Greek-speaking intellectuals in nation-formation processes during the Greek Enlightenment. The author explores how scholars invoked the concept of the ‘nation’ and issues closely related to it in order to enforce their demands either for educational reform or for national independence. To be more specific, he studies the construction of a Modern Greek identity in relation to the Greek and European Enlightenment from 1700 up to the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821. The theoretical framework the author deploys is twofold. On the one hand, he exploits the methodological tools provided by the ‘history of concepts’, as formulated by Koselleck, Pocock and Skinner. On the other hand, he deploys specific concepts from current approaches on nation-formation processes in history, drawn especially from the works of Anthony Smith, Benedict Anderson and Eric Hobsbawm. He examines the discursive strategies but also the ideology of relevant works, mainly geographies, histories and political treatises. The corpus of works he studies includes both well-known texts (e.g. by Koraes, Katartzis and Rigas), but also much ignored and so far unexamined works (e.g. by Stanos and Alexandridis). Three arguments are intertwined in the present study. The first issue that this thesis claims to address is the exploration of the incorporation of Byzantium into a Greek historical schema. During the eighteenth century Greek intellectuals attempted to rewrite the history of the Greeks and their main problem was integrating in their narrative the Greek Middle Ages. This period was viewed by them as a historical gap. In their attempt to bridge this gap, the answer they gradually came up with was the invention of what Koraes first named, earlier than is previously thought, ‘Byzantine history’. Secondly, the present study clarifies the particularities of a transformation process regarding the self-image of the Greeks as a political community. This process is evident in the writings of Greek-speaking intellectuals. Influenced by modernity and the emergence of the new political paradigm of the ‘nation’ these scholars imagined Greek-speaking people in terms of a national community. The third argument this book aims to develop is the historical link between the Enlightenment as a philosophical movement and nationalism as an ideology. The author suggests a reinterpretation of the last stage of the Greek Enlightenment. He argues that Greek-speaking scholars transmuted enlightening doctrines into a nationalist ideology in order to satisfy the new political needs of the Greek nation for the creation of an independent state. This enlightened nationalism, however, was not related to the subsequent Romantic ideology, but it was based on the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment. All in all, this book aims to contribute to the study of the Greek Enlightenment by throwing further light on the complex issues of self-image and identity.

Drawing on an interdisciplinary panel of contributors, this book presents a stimulating dialogue between economics and art theory and considers how this might aid our understanding of both areas of research. The collection explores themes which both fields share, including rationality, abstraction and model building, the nature of social reality, representation and transformation. The contributions employ a broad range of methods to investigate the links between economics and art, and their coverage includes architecture, history of ideas, art theory, literature studies and beyond. This innovative volume will be of interest to advanced students and scholars of economic theory, cultural economics, literary and art theory and it intends to be a starting point for new avenues of interdisciplinary research.

Earthly Delights brings together a number of substantial and original scholarly studies by international scholars currently working on the history of food in the Ottoman Empire and East-Central Europe. It offers new empirical research, as well as surveys of the state of scholarship in this discipline, with special emphasis on influences, continuities and discontinuities in the culinary cultures of the Ottoman Porte, the Balkans and East-Central Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries. Some contributions address economic aspects of food provision, the development and trans-national circulation of individual dishes, and the role of merchants, diplomats and travellers in the transmission of culinary trends. Others examine the role of food in the construction of national and regional identities in contact zones where local traditions merged or clashed with imperial (Ottoman, Habsburg) and West-European influences.

Using diverse sources ranging from hagiographies and historiographies to historical novels and satirical poems, this is the first book-length examination of Emmanouil Roidis’ Pope Joan (1866). Providing a long-overdue and authoritative introduction to the sinuous poetics of one of the most celebrated Modern Greek novels, Roidis and the Borrowed Muse takes in a broad gamut of British writers, from Swift, Sterne and Gibbon to Scott, Macaulay and Byron, and casts a fresh and original eye on the intertextual connections between their work and Roidis’ magnum opus. This comprehensive comparative study will appeal not only to intellectual historians, literary critics and students, but also to scholars of Romanticism and readers interested in the many facets of satire.

The birth of the Greek nation in 1830 was a pivotal event in modern European history and in the history of nation-building in general. As the first internationally recognized state to appear on the map of Europe since the French Revolution, independent Greece provided a model for other national movements to emulate. Throughout the process of nation formation in Greece, the Russian Empire played a critical part. Drawing upon a mass of previously fallow archival material, most notably from Russian embassies and consulates, this volume explores the role of Russia and the potent interaction of religion and politics in the making of modern Greek identity. It deals particularly with the role of Eastern Orthodoxy in the transformation of the collective identity of the Greeks from the Ottoman Orthodox millet into the new Hellenic-Christian imagined community. Lucien J. Frary provides the first comprehensive examination of Russian reactions to the establishment of the autocephalous Greek Church, the earliest of its kind in the Orthodox Balkans, and elucidates Russia's anger and disappointment during the Greek Constitutional Revolution of 1843, the leaders of which were Russophiles. Employing Russian newspapers and "thick journals" of the era, Frary probes responses within Russian reading circles to the reforms and revolutions taking place in the Greek kingdom. More broadly, the volume explores the making of Russian foreign policy during the reign of Nicholas I (1825-55) and provides a distinctively transnational perspective on the formation of modern identity.

This book analyses aspects of the material culture of early modern Greece from an object-based perspective, using surviving artefacts from that period as primary sources. A printed book, a wine jug, an ecclesiastical embroidery, and a pocket watch are used as entry points to examine the consumer practices of the emerging Greek bourgeoisie under Ottoman rule in the long eighteenth century. The acquisition and usage of novel products – especially imported ones – by Greeks was connected to personal expression, identity building, and self-determination in the context of the Enlightenment. The enjoyment of innovative artefacts opened new horizons to them and facilitated their individual and collective empowerment. The originality of the book lies in its eclectic and interdisciplinary approach towards early modern Greek material culture, an under-researched topic. The study is embedded within contemporary discourses on transnational trade, the materiality of everyday life, pleasurable consumption, and the negotiation of identities. This volume will appeal to students and scholars of early modern and modern Greek history, Ottoman history, European history, material culture, history of technology, museum studies, and cultural heritage studies, as well as museum professionals, collectors, and the wider educated public.

This volume traces the rich social, cultural, economic and political history of the Greeks during National Period up till the military coup of 1909.

In this magisterial book, William St Clair unfolds the history of the Parthenon throughout the modern era to the present day, with special emphasis on the period before, during, and after the Greek War of Independence of 1821–32. Focusing particularly on the question of who saved the Parthenon from destruction during this conflict, with the help of documents that shed a new light on this enduring question, he explores the contributions made by the Philhellenes, Ancient Athenians, Ottomans and the Great Powers. Marshalling a vast amount of primary evidence, much of it previously unexamined and published here for the first time, St Clair rigorously explores the multiple ways in which the Parthenon has served both as a cultural icon onto which meanings are projected and as a symbol of particular national, religious and racial identities, as well as how it illuminates larger questions about the uses of built heritage. This book has a companion volume with the classical Parthenon as its main focus, which offers new ways of recovering the monument and its meanings in ancient times. St Clair builds on the success of his classic text, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period, to present this rich and authoritative account of the Parthenon’s presentation and reception throughout history. With weighty implications for the present life of the Parthenon, it is itself a monumental contribution to accounts of the Greek Revolution, to classical studies, and to intellectual history.

The ‘Greek genius’ appears as the combination of two stereotypes with a long pedigree: Homer’s ingenious Odysseus, triumphing with tricks over his foes, and Virgil’s ‘deceitful Odysseus’, the impostor Greek. Adamantios Korais, the leading scholar who almost single-handedly refashioned the Greek nation, fully appreciated the importance of Greek shipping and commerce, and the wealth they generated for the spread of Enlightenment ideas and the quest for political emancipation in the Greek lands. In this context, the ‘genius’ and the consequent economic success have long been considered the essential prerequisites for the spreading of Greek education and, ultimately, national revival. Reversely, Greek education and consciousness-building via economic success are taken as proof of the immanent ‘Greek genius’. As a popular myth of redemption, this stereotype persists in a country of rather limited resources and uncertain prospects. This volume seeks to identify both the content and the ways that the ‘Greek genius’ has long worked at the political, social and economic level. Based on a collective research project, it offers an original contribution to the broader discussion generated by the current Greek national bicentenary. This book will appeal to all those interested in the idea of the Greek 'national character’ as well as international perceptions of Greek culture, education, and society during the modern era.

By looking at the very specific case of the Greek-speaking Romaniote and the Ladino-speaking Sephardic communities in Southern Greece, Epirus and Macedonia, this book explores the attitudes and policies of the Greek state with regards to the Jewish communities both within its borders and in the areas of the Ottoman Empire it craved. Evdoxios Doxiadis traces the evolution of these policies from the time of Greek independence to the expansion of the Greek state in the early-20th century, telling us a great deal about the Jewish experience and the changing face of modern Greek nationalism in the process. Based on the evidence of numerous Greek consular reports, speeches, memoirs, political interviews and coverage of the status and treatment of the communities by the international Jewish press, State, Nationalism, and the Jewish Communities of Modern Greece sketches a detailed picture of the Greek political elite and the state's bureaucratic view of the various Jewish communities. By focusing on the state, though not ignoring popular attitudes, the book successfully argues that the Greek state followed policies that did not conform, and often were in opposition to, popular attitudes when it came to minorities and the Jews in particular. By focusing on the Jewish communities in modern Greece separately the book allows us to recognize how Greek governments recognized and used divisions and conflicts between the communities, and other minorities, to achieve their goals. As a result Greek state policies can be seen in a new light, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the Jewish people and the Greek state. Using this case study, Doxiadis then discusses broader questions of state, nationalism and minorities in a volume of significant interest for students and scholars of modern Greek or modern Jewish history alike.