Greece during the Byzantine period, c. 300 ce–c. 1453

Johannes Koder and Friedrich Hild, Hellas und Thessalia (1976), provides a detailed regional historical and geographic survey and includes an extensive bibliography as well as a discussion of the historical and political evolution of the region.

General surveys of the history of the Byzantine world all include information dealing with Greece at the appropriate junctures. The most useful are George Ostrogorsky (Georgije Ostrogorski), History of the Byzantine State, 2nd ed. (1968, reissued 1980; originally published in German, 1940); and J.M. Hussey, D.M. Nicol, and G. Cowan (eds.), The Byzantine Empire, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1966–67), vol. 4 of The Cambridge Medieval History; the latter in particular contains material relevant to the local historical evolution of the various Greek regions. A wealth of detail on the society and economy of the late Roman world, as well as on the provincial administration of the Greek regions, is provided by A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social Economic and Administrative Survey, 2 vol. (1964, reprinted 1986). The transition from late Roman to early Byzantine structures, the fate of urban society, and the effects of the disruptions of the 7th century are surveyed in J.F. Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture, rev. ed. (1997), with detailed discussions of a number of fundamental developments. Society and economy in the later period are treated in Alan Harvey, Economic Expansion in the Byzantine Empire, 900–1200 (1989), for the period to the Fourth Crusade; and Angeliki E. Laiou-Thomadakis, Peasant Society in the Late Byzantine Empire (1977), for the period from about 1204 until the end of the empire. Michael F. Hendy, Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy, c. 300–1450 (1985), presents a detailed collection of surveys of the physical geography, land use, and settlement patterns of the Balkans (as well as other regions of the empire), together with a discussion of the nature of the Byzantine economy, fiscal administration, and related topics. Nicolas Oikonomidès, Les Listes de préséance byzantines des IX^e et X^e siècles (1972), presents the evidence for the development of the middle Byzantine provincial, fiscal, and administrative structures that evolved in Greece during this period.

Works dealing specifically with Greece include Apostolos E. Vacalopoulos, Origins of the Greek Nation, trans. from Greek (1970); and Nicolas Cheetham, Mediaeval Greece (1981), both of which provide excellent general accounts, the former in particular presenting political, socioeconomic, and ethnic-linguistic issues. English-language surveys of different regions are Donald M. Nicol, The Despotate of Epiros, 1267–1479 (1984); and Michael Angold, A Byzantine Government in Exile: Government and Society Under the Laskarids of Nicaea, 1204–1261 (1974). Particular aspects of regional history are discussed in David Jacoby, Recherches sur la Méditerranée orientale du XII^e au XV^e siècle: peuples, sociétés, économies (1979); and in Peter Topping, “The Morea, 1311–1364,” and “The Morea, 1364–1460,” in Kenneth M. Setton (ed.), A History of the Crusades, vol. 3 (1975), pp. 104–166, all of which deal with social and economic as well as political and historical problems connected with the Latin-Frankish presence in Greece. The roles of the Vlachs and Albanians are examined by T.J. Winnifrith, The Vlachs (1987); and by Alain Ducellier, L’Albanie entre Byzance et Venise: X^e–XV^e siècles (1987). A useful and important survey of Byzantium and the Slavs, as well as of the Vlachs and Albanians, is Dimitri Obolenski, The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453 (1971, reissued 1982); and a basic reference work that deals with all the topics mentioned, sometimes in detail, and that also includes further references is Alexander P. Kazhdan (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vol. (1991).

Greece under Ottoman rule, 1453–1831

Arnold Toynbee, The Greeks and Their Heritages (1981), is a stimulating survey of the whole range of Greek history from prehistoric times to the present day. One of the few scholarly studies in English of the dark age of Greek history, between the fall of Constantinople and the capture of Crete, is Apostolos E. Vacalopoulos (Apostolos E. Vakalopoulas), The Greek Nation, 1453–1669: The Cultural and Economic Background of Modern Greek Society, trans. from Greek (1976).

An overview of the critical four centuries of Ottoman rule is contained in D.A. Zakythinos (Dionysios A. Zakythènos), The Making of Modern Greece: From Byzantium to Independence, trans. from Greek (1976). The crucial role of the church during the period is discussed in Steven Runciman, The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence (1968, reprinted 1986). Richard Clogg (ed. and trans.), The Movement for Greek Independence, 1770–1821 (1976), illustrates the emergence of the Greek national movement through contemporary documents; while G.P. Henderson, The Revival of Greek Thought, 1620–1830 (1970), focuses on the intellectual revival that preceded the outbreak of the war of independence in 1821. The war itself is covered in Douglas Dakin, The Greek Struggle for Independence, 1821–1833 (1973); and the diplomacy of the period is analyzed in C.W. Crawley, The Question of Greek Independence: A Study of British Policy in the Near East, 1821–1833 (1930, reprinted 1973). The colourful story of the philhellene volunteers who fought alongside the insurgent Greeks is told by William St. Clair, That Greece Might Still Be Free: The Philhellenes in the War of Independence (1972). The independence movement is also traced in C.M. Woodhouse, Capodistria: The Founder of Greek Independence (1973), a study of the first president of Greece.

Greece since 1831

General histories in English that deal in considerable detail with the 19th and early 20th centuries include Richard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece (1992), which, with its authoritative text and illustrations, is a fine introduction; Douglas Dakin, The Unification of Greece, 1770–1923 (1972), which is a bit specialized but is a crucial text; E.S. Forster, A Short History of Modern Greece, 1821–1956, 3rd ed. rev. and enlarged (1958, reprinted 1977), a basic survey; Journal of Modern Greek Studies (semiannual), published by the Modern Greek Studies Association, the premier publication for scholarship on modern Greece; John A. Petropoulos, Politics and Statecraft in the Kingdom of Greece, 1833–1843 (1968), somewhat specialized but important for understanding this formative phase of modern Greece; and Charles K. Tuckerman, The Greeks of To-day, 3rd ed. rev. and corrected (1886), a perceptive account of mid-19th-century Greece by the first U.S. minister to Greece.

Works focusing on Greece about 1900–40 include George B. Leon, Greece and the Great Powers, 1914–1917 (1974), which focuses on the role of Britain and France in Greece’s internal affairs during World War I; Michael Llewellyn Smith, Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919–1922 (1973, reissued 1998), which treats Greece’s disastrous adventures in Turkey; George Th. Mavrogordatos, Stillborn Republic: Social Coalitions and Party Strategies in Greece, 1922–1936 (1983), an indispensable guide to the complex politics of the interwar period; and Thanos Veremis (Thanos Veremès), The Military in Greek Politics: From Independence to Democracy (1997), a survey of the often strained relations between Greece’s military and civilian powers. Among the works on Greece during and after World War II are John O. Iatrides (ed.), Greece in the 1940s: A Nation in Crisis (1981), a collection of scholarly essays on this difficult decade for Greece; Mark Mazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44 (1993, reissued 1995), which lives up to its title by moving beyond scholarship to convey the experience; and C.M. Woodhouse, The Struggle for Greece, 1941–1949 (1976, reissued 1979), an account of that turbulent decade by one of the most sensitive foreign observers of modern Greece.

Books that focus on Greece since the 1960s include Loring M. Danforth, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World (1995), an objective account of the “issue,” which continues to vex Greeks; David Holden, Greece Without Columns (1972), by a journalist who is blunt and opinionated but most perceptive; Theodore C. Kariotis (ed.), The Greek Socialist Experiment: Papandreou’s Greece, 1981–1989 (1992), a balanced collection of essays on this controversial period; Michalis Spourdalakis, The Rise of the Greek Socialist Party (1988), which recounts the rise to power of Andreas Papendreou and his PASOK party; and C.M. Woodhouse, The Rise and Fall of the Greek Colonels (1985), an astute analysis of the military dictatorship of 1967–74, and Karamanlis: The Restorer of Greek Democracy (1982), a biography of the politician who twice led Greece toward democracy. Dimitri Constas and Theofanis G. Stavrou (eds.), Greece Prepares for the Twenty-First Century (1995); Van Coufoudakis, Harry J. Psomiades, and Andre Gerolymatos (eds.), Greece and the New Balkans: Challenges and Opportunities (1999); and Kostas A. Lavdas, The Europeanization of Greece: Interest Politics and the Crises of Integration (1997), all examine the country at the end of the 20th century.