History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece

"The Greek crisis has largely been addressed as a drama of loan repayments and fiery public protests. In this evocative ethnography, Knight captures the sense of temporal vertigo induced in an ordinary local community as assumptions about continuing prosperity give way to the apprehension that unfortunate past times are returning. This book is must reading for anyone wishing to understand the social experience and human cost of financial crisis." - Charles Stewart, University College London, UK, and author of Dreaming and Historical Consciousness in Island Greece (2012) "Knight's book is a masterful example of how history and anthropology together can explain the tensions of the present through the understanding of how memories of the past are recalled. Like Walter Benjamin's angel of history, being blown backwards towards the future while contemplating the ruins of the past, contemporary Greeks engage with the transformations in their political economic position while making sense of them in terms of past localized experiences. This is a timely and magnificent piece of scholarship." -Susana Narotzky, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Barcelona, Spain "This is a dynamite book, the first ethnographic exploration of everyday life during the Greek Crisis; it is also an engaging meditation on rethinking memory and history, and the fascinating, multi-folded ties of present experience to images of the past. This is far from simply of scholarly interest; questions about what histories are relevant to the present are being debated as part of a struggle over the future of the European Union. Knight's book will undoubtedly enrich these debates. It is a timely contribution, accessibly written, which will make an excellent text for the classroom, as well as for wider discussion." - David E. Sutton, Professor of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, USA>

History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece explores how the inhabitants of a Greek town face the devastating consequences of the worst economic crisis in living memory. Knight examines how the inhabitants draw on the past to contextualize their experiences and build strength that will enable them to overcome their suffering.History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece explores how the inhabitants of a Greek town face the devastating consequences of the worst economic crisis in living memory. Knight examines how the inhabitants draw on the past to contextualize their experiences and build strength that will enable them to overcome their suffering.