A comprehensive history of Greece from the reign of Constantine the
Great to the end of the 20th century, written by former diplomat
Woodhouse (The Struggle for Greece, 1941 1949, not
reviewed).Without falling prey to any pro- or anti-Greek political
rhetoric, Woodhouse conducts an indiscriminate investigation of the
factors that led first to the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in
1453 and then to the independence of Greece in the 1820s and
subsequent conflicts. He demonstrates convincingly that the
devastation of crusades on Constantinople contributed to long-term
hostility between Eastern and Western Christendom, while the
indifference of fellow Christian rulers to the destruction of
Byzantium by the Turks made the Greeks' downfall inevitable.
Woodhouse debunks many a myth about the Greeks' living conditions
under the Ottoman Empire. While they (like all non-Muslims) had to
pay special taxes, they enjoyed considerable freedom of religion,
trade, and education. In fact, some Greek communities suffered more
from their own Greek administrators than from Turkish oppressors.
With Greek identity hard to define after years of dispersion, Greek
independence resulted largely from the struggle for domination of
the Balkans among external powersmainly Russia, Britain, Germany,
and the Ottoman Empire. Left to its own devices, independent Greece
often slipped into the chaos of civil wars, political instability,
and corruption. Delving into the concept of enosis (union) and the
present deadlock in Cyprus, Woodhouse traces the conflict to
British blundering, Greek expansionist moods, the treachery of the
Greek Cypriot government and a lack of good will on the part of
mainland Greece and Turkey.A solid survey of almost two millennia
of Greek history, full of both aspirations for national unity and
constant civil discord. The material is dense, saturated with dates
and names, and will probably be a hard nut to crack for the average
reader. It is also unfortunate that the author completely neglected
the last decade of the 20th century, as he finishes his account
with Papanderou's defeat in the 1989 elections. (Kirkus Reviews)
Acclaimed for its penetration, balance, and insight, "Modern Greece
tells the story of Greece and its people, from the founding of
Constantinople to the eclipse of socialism in the late twentieth
century. C. M. Woodhouse is uniquely qualified to write the history
of Greece, having served there in the Allied military and the
British embassy during and after World War II before writing
several books on Greece. In this classic work, which Woodhouse has
updated five times to create a truly comprehensive history, the
depth of his knowledge and understanding of the country and its
citizens comes through clearly in every chapter, as he ranges from
the ascendancy and eventual fall of the Byzantine Empire through
the emergence for the first time of a unified Greek kingdom in the
1800s to the political turmoil of twentieth-century politics. This
is a book for readers and travelers who wish to understand the
history and culture behind the beauty that is eternal Greece.
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