Customer Reviews

A Concise History of Greece (Cambridge Concise Histories)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a graduate student of modern history, currently working on 19th century Greece. Professor Clogg's book is a good introduction to the subject. I don't think there are better ones around. His relaxed style of writing and the layout together make for a very attractive and easily-read history of modern Greece. The photographs are fantastic. Almost half the book is made up by pictures and little stories relating to them. This is nice to read, but also a little confusing. There is a lot of information without a context, a lot of loose ends, too few conclusions, and too little coherence. To put it short, Clogg is a good historian, but I don't think he had many late nights editing this so-called "Concise History". (What a ridiculous title, by the way.) Having said that, the academic level is high, the political angle is very moderate and the glorification of the Greek national state is less pronounced than in earlier volumes. There is an underlying if not out-spoken atmosphere of sound critical thinking. I prefer historians who don't pretend to know exactly what happened. If you are really interested in Modern Greece, you should maybe read P. Kitromilides "Enlightenment, Nationalism, Orthodoxy". To me Kitromilides really is the king of modern Greek history. Very up-to-date, very thought-provoking, very new, very eloquent.

Now in an expanded second edition, A Concise History Of Greece by Richard Clogg (Fellow of St. Anthony's College, Oxford University, England) is a straightforward, scholarly chronicle of the modern history of Greece, ranging from the Ottoman rule of the late 1700's, to the pressures of Balkan strife and political modernization of the present day. Deftly written and carefully researched, supplemented with tables, short biographies, as well as a listing of the royal houses of Greece, A Concise History Of Greece is an excellent and scholarly survey of the modern growth of the nation which is a strongly recommended addition to academic World History collections in general, and Hellenic History supplemental reading lists in particular.

Richard Clogg is a renowned international scholar who has been writing about Greek history for decades. This work is a popularization (from footnotes deliver me) that should prove very helpful to the layman with more than a casual interest in Greece. It invites comparison with C.M. Woodhouse's also famous history, but I must declare myself incompetent to decide if one is better than the other.

Clogg's section on the Ottoman period is blessedly brief and his discussion of the Nazi occupation and Communist insurection are to-the-point yet incisive.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the work is the great bunch of pictures gracing nearly every page and showing the days of glory in Modern Greece as well as some of the saddest. The maps are also helpful.

There are no footnotes but the selective bibliography will be useful to most readers. There is also an appendix giving thumbnail biographies of some luminaries in modern Greek history.

This is a great book for both an introduction as well as an on-going reference source on modern Greece.
Highly recommend it to students or anyone interested in learning the history of the modern state, without getting bogged down with boring details.

Richard Clogg provides a rich history in a concise fashion. Highly recommended to students of Greek history for its well documented and supported writing. Factual evidence and sources add to the history, even though concise. I can think of no better short history of Greece. It is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the trends that have molded the modern Greek state and the historical infuences on Greek national identity. Many have written histories of Greece, but few have delved into an anaylsis of the historical trends that have helped to create the Greek world view and national identity.

A very interesting and concise history of Greece from the 18th century to the present. It includes detailed examinations of all the major turning points in Greek history in the last three hundred years; the Greek war of independence, Greece under the Nazis, the Greek Civil War and the dictatorship. All of the important passions that have overcome the Greeks are woven into the story as is the story of the destruction of the Greek peoples of Anatolia (The Pontic Greeks and Smyrna Greeks and others) as well as the ethnic-cleansing of Greeks by the Turks from places such as Adrianople, Constantinople and Rumania and Bulgaria. The conflict over Macedonia is highlighted as is the tragic story of the 100,000 strong Greek community of Egypt that was also cleansed by the Nasser regime.

A fascinating history,

Seth J. Frantzman

It is well structured, brief and not boring. How could it be? It's about my country's history! It concludes all the history of Greece so anyone could be informed about the facts from 1770-2000.I like the way it presents the destruction of Smyrna and the exchange of populations.
There are enough pictures and drawings as well. There are not enough about the recent history, but I was totally impressed when I saw at least few pages about the students occupation in Athens Polytechnic in 1973. I enjoyed it very much considering that in greek schools there is not even a little paragraph about this occupation.
Finally, I think the tables at the last pages of the book are quite useful for anyone who wants to search more or compare to.

For anyone looking for a concise book on the history on Modern Greece then this is it. The book covers the period form just before the Greek revolution to moderns times. Clogg's style is easy to read and comprehend in all facets. The book is littered with great illutrstions, photos and maps which help the reader "visualise" what he/she is reading. The one thing I would say is a negative is that you need to have some knowledge of the events that are recorded in this book, but that is a minor issue in comparison to the whole work.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to study Greek Modern history.

The introduction was very helpful in understanding what was to come. Modern Greece's history is very complex. The book provides a good summary of the complexities. I have learned what I needed from this book.

If you're looking for a blood and guts tale of the rich history of Greece, this isn't it. However it does seem authoritative and worth keeping on your shelf as a reference text. It reads more like a doctoral thesis, than a lively page-turner, but the main characters in modern Greek history were not bloodless, bland creatures, like Wooldrow Wilson, but tough politicoes, and you get no sense of personality in this book.If the author, Richard Clogg, had gone to Podunk State College instead of Cambridge, he might have been able to breath more life into his writing instead of sounding like the "Enclopedia Brittanica".