Radicalization, Clandestine Engagement, and Violent Action: Four Greek Memoirs

Political radicalization is an increasingly popular yet underspecified concept. Four memoirs that portray the trajectories of individuals who engaged in clandestine action, either violent or nonviolent—in Greece from the late 1960s onwards, allow an examination of the process of radicalization. Comparison of these memoirs sheds light not only on the process of political radicalization but also on the recent history of political violence in Greece. It also serves to reveal the utility of critically relying on autobiographical material, to highlight the importance of disaggregating the process of radicalization and distinguishing it from both clandestine engagement and violent action, and to show how different components of the Greek Left, mainstream and nonviolent on the one hand, clandestine and violent on the other, have been linked to each other.