Ο ελληνικός 20ός αιώνας [The Greek twentieth century] by Antonis Liakos (review)

It is only recently that Greek historians have started to write century-long syntheses of modern Greek history. Antonis Liakos has a point when he claims that “British historiographical production on Greece, not least because of the hegemonic position of English, has determined the country’s image all over the world more than any other historiographical production, Greek or non-Greek” (651). The Greek Twentieth Century is a valuable addition to the emerging Greek historical production as well as the first comprehensive single-author volume for the twentieth century. It is a rich and ambitious work. Liakos sets himself the goal of situating Greece in a global context, which he adapts with respect to geography and scope according to the period and theme being treated. In an unusual mix of political, economic, social, and cultural history, Liakos offers a shifting panoramic view of Greece and draws from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives that combine Greek publications with international twentieth-century research.

The volume comprises ten chapters (nine chronological and one historio-graphical). It opens with the Balkan Wars and concludes with the 2010 economic crisis that has left Greece seriously scarred to this day. Liakos’s chronology does not limit itself to the twentieth century’s strict chronological boundaries. It includes two hundred pages on a very recent period, not yet historicized—the late 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s. Each chapter is divided into thematic sub-chapters and sections, with varying levels of analysis that often extend beyond the chronological framework of the chapter in question. The historiographical chapter concludes the volume, followed by a short epilogue, a bibliography, and an index.

It is impossible to summarize this book. The difficulty does not lie in the book’s length (740 pages), but rather in its contents, which are full of arguments, positions, and interpretations that will certainly generate controversies and disagreements. At the same time, the book offers valuable material for reflection and for teaching. Liakos’s intention to integrate Greek history within wider—European or global—contexts takes different forms in each chapter and section. Some chapters are exemplary, revising the conventional narratives of the relevant period. Other chapters are less successful in achieving the author’s goal. The best chapters in the book are those focusing on the decade of wars, 1912–1922, and the Metapolitefsi (the period after the fall of the military dictatorship). Each of these chapters presents an insightful and systematic analysis of a wide range of themes, aided by rich, coherent, and lively prose.

The chapter on the period 1912–1922 recasts the well-known events of Greek history, such as the National Schism (Dichasmos) and the refugee and minorities questions, from a European perspective, situating Greece amid the process of European restructuring during and after World War I. The repeated devastations caused by military violence are at the heart of this chapter, but attention is also given to the new modes of governance that emerged to confront the problem of European reconstruction. Liakos emphasizes that epidemics proved just as devastating as armed conflict.

The chapter on the Metapolitefsi places the new post-junta political and social landscape in the context of the social transformations that were shaping the southern parts of Europe in the aftermath of the OPEC oil crisis that initiated a period of unstable and fragile economies. Questions of the period’s chronology, culture, and ideology are also examined in relation to what was happening in the wider world. This is a stylish chapter that is written with verve and enriched by the author’s own experiences in his youth.

Other chapters focus more narrowly on Greek history. The interwar years are presented as a period of national reconstruction, state reformation, and social engineering, while the chapter on World War II is surprisingly Greece-centered, analyzing the social, ideological, and political consequences of the dissolution of the state and the normalization of violence. The main argument here is that the Resistance rearranged prewar ideological positions and political divisions, with...