1st Edition
The Battle for Bodies, Hearts and Minds in Postwar Greece Social Worker Charles Schermerhorn in Thessaloniki, 1946–1951
List of Figures and Maps
Foreword
Preface and Acknowledgments
Maps
Introduction
Charley in Greece: 1946 to 1951
References
Index
Biography
Gonda Van Steen holds the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language, and Literature in the Department of Classics at King’s College London. She is the author of five books: Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece (2000); Liberating Hellenism from the Ottoman Empire (2010); Theatre of the Condemned: Classical Tragedy on Greek Prison Islands (2011); and Stage of Emergency: Theater and Public Performance under the Greek Military Dictatorship of 1967–1974 (2015). Her latest book, Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece (2019), takes the reader into the uncharted terrain of Greek adoption stories that become paradigmatic of Cold War politics and history.
‘With the Greek Civil War at its epicentre, the memoir written by [Charles] Schermerhorn and edited by Professor Van Steen, holds special interest for those who study the Cold War, the “hot” zones in the peripheries of wars fought “by proxy”, and the catastrophic social repercussions of battles that rage in areas hidden from public view ... The global history of humanitarian crises is a burgeoning field of research. As far as Greece is concerned, Schermerhorn was the first to position the children and the rural Greeks, who left behind very few personal narratives about the hardships of that turbulent time, at the centre of this urgent and ever-current debate’ - The Books’ Journal 151, March 2024 (review translated from Greek).
‘Anyone looking to understand the social impacts of war and how humanitarian aid is managed in complex situations will find this book extremely valuable. It also offers important lessons on humanity, courage, and compassion, demonstrating that effective aid must be based on a deep understanding of the local needs and culture of the people served’ - Social Work Education.
