The Island of the Pope
Catholics in the Aegean Archipelago between Empire and Nation-State, 1770-1830
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Berghahn Books
Published:1st Feb '25
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
For the Aegean island of Syros, the Greek Revolution (1821-1832) marked a significant turning point. Known as “the island of the Pope”, due to its Catholic majority, Syros transformed into a major commercial hub, seemingly triggering the withdrawal of its indigenous Latin community. Juxtaposing the view from the Archipelago with that from Istanbul, the Peloponnese, Rome, Paris and Vienna, this volume revisits the island’s history. From early encounters between native inhabitants and groups from across the Ottoman Levant, to how the Latin community navigated conflict and change during the Greek War of Independence, this book offers new insights into the political, cultural and social history of the region.
“This is a very well written study of the Catholic communities in the Aegean Sea during the Greek revolution, a case study for the historical transition from the imperial experiences to the new, for the nineteenth century, reality of the nation-state in-the-making and the new national identities. […] [It] is the only study of the Greek Revolution from the point of view of the Catholic communities in the Levant, combining the local, regional, and international level of analysis.”• Elias Kolovos, University of Crete.
“Kousouris’ Island of the Pope is another exciting and immersive addition to the [existing] line of literature. It makes politics and conflicts in the nineteenth-century Cyclades palpable, personal, and engaging. I would argue that it assigned Syros its just position as a protagonist in the history of the Greek Revolution and, probably speaking for many scholars working on the Mediterranean, state that we want more books of this kind.”• CEU Review of Books
ISBN: 9781805398592
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
258 pages