Maria Kaliambou (ed.) Η Επανάσταση του 1821 και οι Έλληνες της Αμερικής. Aθήνα: Εκδόσεις Ασίνη. 2023. Pp. 212. Paper €14.40.
The volume, Η Επανάσταση του 1821 και οι Έλληνες της Αμερικής, is the translation of The Greek Revolution and the Greek Diaspora in the United States that was published in March 2023. With the addition of a chapter, the Greek edition currently under review here explores the impact of commemorations of the Revolution on the identity of the Greek diaspora in North America. In the introduction, Maria Kaliambou, the volume’s editor, states that the book’s structure follows Gonda van Steen’s suggestion in The Greek Revolution Dictionary—that by comparatively studying earlier anniversaries, mainly those considered to be major ones that coincide with jubilees, their festivities, and the images of the nation they portrayed, scholars can focus on their differences and/or similarities. Most of the contributors to the volume conduct such comparisons. Additionally, the volume expands the discussion of the commemoration of revolutions to include issues closely connected with how diasporic Greeks internalize such historical moments. Future comparisons of anniversaries are likely to deepen our understanding of the differing impact that the Greek Revolution has had on both homeland and diaspora communities.
In the first chapter, Alexander Kitroeff delves into the celebrations of 1821 that were organized annually by AHEPA since the organization’s founding in 1922. His chapter focuses on the profound impact that one hundred years of commemoration have had on the evolving identity of Greek Americans. Viewing these commemorations as a window into the relationship between the Greek American diaspora and the Greek homeland, Kitroeff sheds light on the intriguing role played by American philhellenes in the Greek Revolution. For example, in his exploration of the celebration that marked the 150th anniversary of the Greek Revolution, which coincidently happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of AHEPA, Kitroeff focuses on a booklet written in 1972 by AHEPA’s Executive Secretary, George Leber, that highlighted American philhellenism and its effect on the Greek Revolution. While unknown to researchers in Greece in the 1970s, Kitroeff’s chapter introduces Leber’s booklet as an important source of historical research. In so doing, Kitroeff counters the incorrect assumption held by many that American philhellenism did not attract attention until Christos Lazos published his two volumes titled Η Αμερική και ο ρόλος της στην Επανάσταση του 1821 (Athens 1983). Additionally, Kitroeff also reminds readers that the diasporic and homeland academic communities had lost contact during the colonels’ dictatorship. Thus, while historians and political scientists of Greek descent in the United States published several excellent studies and edited volumes about the Greek Revolution during the time of the dictatorship, inaugurating a new, interdisciplinary approach to the study of the state-building process in Greece, the colonels, who were intent on abusing the influential role of cinematographic film, monopolized the jubilee, encouraging monumental national festivities and patriotic film productions about 1821.
The second chapter of the volume focuses on Greeks in Canada and offers readers an exciting and relatively unexplored case study to peruse. Specifically, by collecting data from Canadian newspapers dating back to the 1920s about the evolution of these celebrations, Sakis Gekas explores the evolving identity of diasporic Greeks in Toronto as well as the conflict surrounding Canada’s recognition of FYROM in the early 1990s. In his chapter, Gekas presents Greek Independence Day commemorations in chronological order and considers what these commemorations reveal about the changing perceptions Canadians had of Greeks. Gekas’s main point is that Toronto’s Greek parades and its 1821 commemoration events showcase key historical moments of that city’s Greek community. For example, the 1941 anniversary of Greece’s independence turned into a celebration of Hellenic patriotism given the fact that Greece was Canada’s ally during the Second World War against the Axis powers. Gekas also points out that on the 150th anniversary of the Revolution, the celebrations turned against the colonels’ dictatorship and that the 1983 visit of then Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou overshadowed the Revolution’s anniversary. A central argument of Gekas’s chapter is that non-Greeks in Canada came to perceive Canadian Greeks and their commemorative festivities as exotic and that these festivities gradually became an opportunity for Greek diasporans to celebrate their Greek Canadian identity.
In the third chapter, Kostis Kourelis examines how ideas about the Greek Revolution influenced the architectural heritage of Americans and Greek Americans. He argues that, while it remains impossible to build Orthodox churches resembling ancient Greek temples in Greece, during the Italian Renaissance, classical architecture was Christianized. Classical architectre then expanded, moving from northern Europe to the United States, where it became the prevalent American architectural style from the 1820s to the 1840s. Kourelis explains that, after the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, Americans embraced classical ecclesiastical styles, associating the Greek fighters of Independence with the founders of ancient Greek democracy. Later, the immigration of Greeks to the United States between 1890 and 1924 sparked a revival of the classical architectural style, eventually paving the way for neo-Byzantine architecture to prevail in the second half of the twentieth century. Kourelis’s main argument is that Greek American churches, as well as other buildings in America, are not only architectural structures but powerful symbols of national identity and culture for Greek Americans. To an American onlooker, these symbols highlight the diaspora’s moral engagement with the historical homeland.
In the fourth chapter, which is not included in the English edition of the book, the award-winning documentary filmmaker April Kalogeropoulos-Householder begins by sharing her thoughts regarding her own Greek American identity during a trip to Greece. The occasion for her visit to the country and, mainly, to the island of Spetses was research she was conducting for her dissertation/film, The Brave Stepped Back: The Life and Times of Laskarina Bouboulina. The importance of Kalogeropoulos-Householder’s introductory narrative lies in the scarcity of other autobiographical recollections and the information she shares regarding the film’s reception by Greek Americans. She notes, for example, that the film’s viewers posed a limited range of questions about Bouboulina’s private life and the likelihood that she may have had influential lovers who supported her leading role in the Revolution. Moreover, Kalogeropoulos-Householder discusses the Greek American community’s reception of the 2019 film, Cliffs of Freedom—a historical drama based on the Greek Revolution. Central to her analysis is the close connection she draws between contemporary Greek Americans’ perceptions of patriotism and their impact on the female roles in diasporic films produced to commemorate Greece’s 200th anniversary. Kalogeropoulos-Householder concludes that the female characters in these films confirm that Greek American modern women continue to face the danger of social marginalization.
In the fifth chapter, the editor of the volume, Maria Kaliambou, examines how the Greek Revolution was represented in books (collections of poetry, anthologies of plays, and schoolbooks) written and published by Greek Americans during the first half of the twentieth century. Her research reveals the prevalence of a common motif in how 1821 is represented—that is, the books depict heroes as religious neo-martyrs and emphasize their heroic acts of self-sacrifice. She also illustrates how the narratives of the Revolution isolate historical moments and function as modern myths that strengthen the Greek American community’s feelings of belongingness and preserve its bonds with the homeland.
In the sixth chapter, which focuses on the celebrations of the 150th Anniversary, Fevronia Soumakis brings an unexplored issue to the fore: She explores the practices of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Archdiocesan Department of Education, illustrating the impact of the colonels’ dictatorship on the celebrations of Greek Orthodox schools in the United States, which served to shape Greek identity in America. The importance of her research lies in the fact that it not only focuses on the reenactment of nationalism on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary celebration but also addresses the impact of the Greek Orthodox Church on everyday life. Importantly, Soumakis sheds light on the political motivations behind these celebratory programs and points to the pressing need for Greek American educators to reconsider the use of nationalistic narratives in diaspora schools, given the weight of history as well as its influence on modern Greek American identity.
The volume ends with a comparative study of three bicentenary narratives written in the context of two diasporas, Greek American and Greek Australian. The common feature of the three narratives is that they focus on the connection between the celebration of the revolutionary overthrow of slavery in 1821 and the Greek diasporas’ historical encounters with institutional racism and whiteness in their host countries. In this chapter, Yiorgos Anagnostou makes a valuable contribution by pointing out that commemorations and national identities are not neutral cultural fields. As he explains, Greek identity is intimately associated with “the histories of other people and the power relations that have been mediating interethnic encounters” (197). Consequently, the investigation of Greek identity “raises prospects for comparative projects and academic collaborations across national contexts and … diasporas.” Despite his appeal, however, the research on diaspora identity continues to remain, as he acknowledges, in an embryonic state. Thus, the publication of Η Επανάσταση του 1821 is a valuable and welcome addition to other publications that emerged at the time of the Greek bicentennial anniversary.
As editor Maria Kaliambou soberly argues, Η Επανάσταση του 1821 aims to inaugurate a discussion on diaspora identity in the context of commemorating significant historical events like the Revolution of 1821. It seeks to inspire further research on topics included in the volume and other topics it still needs to incorporate. However, some of the volume’s authors note the complexity of broadening the research on diaspora identity to encompass issues such as the representation of Greekness and national patriotism surrounding anniversaries and events from darker periods of history (e.g., the colonels’ dictatorship). Kaliambou also appears to admit that the publication of the volume, which appeared immediately after the publication of the English-language edition, was motivated by the diaspora’s marginalization in the bicentenary historiography of the Revolution that had been published in Greece. It is worth noting, however, that Η Επανάσταση του 1821 only briefly mentions the fact that homeland publications largely ignored the contemporary diaspora. However, despite its shortcomings, Η Επανάσταση του 1821 και οι Έλληνες της Αμερικής is an essential read for scholars and all Greek-speaking individuals who seek to deepen their understanding of the Greek diaspora’s identity at this time when the postal vote in Greek national elections seeks to strengthen ties between Greece and its diaspora.
Elpida Vogli
Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
July 25, 2024
Elpida Vogli is a Professor of Modern Greek History at Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. Her research interests include citizenship issues, national and gender identities, nationalism, diaspora policies, nation and state-building processes, political history, and historiography. Among her latest publications are Τα πεδία της ιστορίας στο παρελθόν και το παρόν της (Πεδίο 2023) and “Suppress or Support? Great Powers and Revolutionary Agency in the Greek War of Independence,” which was coauthored with Harris Mylonas and appeared in Nationalism and Ethnic Politics (July 2024, DOI: 10.1080/13537113.2024.2365052).