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Demon Entrepreneurs: Refashioning the ‘Greek Genius’ in Modern Times book cover

1st Edition

Demon Entrepreneurs: Refashioning the ‘Greek Genius’ in Modern Times

Edited By Basil C. Gounaris, Ioannis D. Stefanidis Copyright 2023
    310 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    310 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    310 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge
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    The ‘Greek genius’ appears as the combination of two stereotypes with a long pedigree: Homer’s ingenious Odysseus, triumphing with tricks over his foes, and Virgil’s ‘deceitful Odysseus’, the impostor Greek. Adamantios Korais, the leading scholar who almost single-handedly refashioned the Greek nation, fully appreciated the importance of Greek shipping and commerce, and the wealth they generated for the spread of Enlightenment ideas and the quest for political emancipation in the Greek lands.

    In this context, the ‘genius’ and the consequent economic success have long been considered the essential prerequisites for the spreading of Greek education and, ultimately, national revival. Reversely, Greek education and consciousness-building via economic success are taken as proof of the immanent ‘Greek genius’. As a popular myth of redemption, this stereotype persists in a country of rather limited resources and uncertain prospects. This volume seeks to identify both the content and the ways that the ‘Greek genius’ has long worked at the political, social and economic level. Based on a collective research project, it offers an original contribution to the broader discussion generated by the current Greek national bicentenary.

    This book will appeal to all those interested in the idea of the Greek 'national character’ as well as international perceptions of Greek culture, education, and society during the modern era.

    Greece, a Nation of Commercial and other Geniuses in a State Fit for Petty Traders and Poor Devils: An Introduction

    Basil. C. Gounaris https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1425-5149

    Part I Beware of the Greeks: From Antiquity to Re-Discovery

    1. Greek Subtlety and Ingenuity: Anglo-French Variations on a Classical Theme

      2. Evangelos Sakkas https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9251-4022

    2. Greeks on Seventeenth Century Dutch Ships and Print(s)

      3. Constantine Theodoridis https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4621-1244

    3. Representations of Greek Entrepreneurship between Projection and Reception in Eighteenth-Century German Sources.

      4.

      Ioannis Zelepos

    4. Pious and Heroic Contrabands: The Greek Character in Russian Perspective (c.1800)

      5. Tatiana Triantafyllidou https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3509-1881

    5. Nineteenth Century British Travellers’ View of the Greek Character

      6. Alexis Dassios https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4093-8832

      Part II A Nation of Geniuses

    6. The ‘Greek Genius’ in the Service of the Nation: The Greek Enlightenment

      7. Kostas Sarris https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6330-4517

    7. Explaining, Enhancing, Disseminating the ‘Greek Genius’ through Textbooks (c.1870-1980)

      8. Vasileios Foukas https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6078-3340

    8. Profiling the ‘Greek Genius’: Nineteenth Century Biographies of Illustrious Greeks

      9. Sotiroula Vasileiou https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6277-0068

    9. Ingenious Emigrants

      10. Kostantinos Diogos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4952-1507

      Part III Exorcising the Greek Daimonion

    10. Orthodox Christian Ambiguities: The ‘Greek Genius’ between Achievements and Morals

      11. Vasilios N. Makrides https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3783-2655

    11. Class or Inherent Vice? The Marxist View of the ‘Greek Genius’

      12. Loukianos Hassiotis https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5644-7202

    12. Genius and Demonic Routes in Modern Greek Prose (c. 1880-1940)

      13. Mairi Mike https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5538-1504

    13. Demon Entrepreneurs and Poor Devils in Post World War II Greek Cinema

      14. Giorgos Andritsos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0225-7075

    14. Aspects of Ingenuity in Greek Popular Culture

      15. Vassilis Vamvakas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7741-9235

      Part IV A Genius for all Times

    15. Indigenous and Incoming Demon Businessmen during Trikoupis’ Modernising Era

      16. Elpida K. Vogli https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4248-2231

    16. Perceptions of the ‘Greek Genius’ during the Interwar Economic Crisis

      17. Eleftheria Manta https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4813-4580

    17. A ‘Daimonion’ for Times of Recovery and Growth, 1945-67

      18. Ioannis D. Stefanidis https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2832-5443

    18. ‘Greek Genius’ vs the Troika in the 2010s

    Panagiotis Paschalidis https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4305-3279

    Biography

    Basil C. Gounaris (DPhil Oxon) is Professor of Modern History at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and vice-chair (2021-23) of the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe (Council of Europe). His books include Steam over Macedonia: Socio-Economic Change and the Railway Factor, Boulder & New York: East European Monographs, 1993; The Balkans of the Greeks: From the Enlightenment to World War I (in Greek), Thessaloniki: Epikentro, 2007; ‘See how the Gods Favour Sacrilege’: English Views and Politics on Candia under Siege (1645-1669), Athens: NRF, 2012; ‘Today is not like yesteryear’: Greek Armatole-Klephts and Albanian Rebels (in Greek), Athens: NRF, 2019.

    Ioannis D. Stefanidis (PhD LSE) is Professor in Diplomatic History, Department of International Studies, School of Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His publications include: Isle of Discord: Nationalism, Imperialism and the Making of the Cyprus Question (London and New York, 1999); Stirring the Greek Nation: Political Culture, Irredentism and Anti-Americanism in Post-War Greece, 1945-67 (Aldershot, 2007); Substitute for Power: British Propaganda to the Balkans, 1939-1944 (Aldershot, 2012), ‘America’s Projection and Democracy Promotion: The ‘Voice of America’, Greece under the Colonels and Ceauşescu’s Romania’, Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, xxxii, no.33 (2016/17), 167-237.

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