The Greek Revolution

1821 and the Making of Modern Europe

By: Mark Mazower

Narrated by: John Lee, Mark Mazower

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize • One of The Economist's top history books of the year

From one of our leading historians, the definitive history of the Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence was an unlikely cause, a disorganized collection of Greek patriots up against what was still one of the most storied empires in the world, the Ottomans. The revolutionaries needed all the help they could get. And they got it, as Europeans and Americans embraced the idea that the heirs to ancient Greece, the wellspring of Western civilization, were fighting for their freedom against the proverbial Eastern despot, the Turkish sultan.

Mazower does full justice to the more complicated reality on the ground, as a revolutionary conspiracy triggered outright rebellion. By the time the dust settled, Greece was free, and Europe was changed forever. It was a victory fora completely new kind of politics—international in its range and affiliations, popular in its origins, romantic in its sentiments, and radical in its goals. The Greek War of Independence was the first war in which a people claimed liberty for themselves and overthrew an entire empire to attain it, inaugurating a new world of nation-states, the world in which we still live.

Interesting but not always easy to follow

I didn’t know anything about the Greek revolution. Now I have a pretty good idea what it was about. A big problem was that after a while all the Greek and Turkish names started sounding the same. I had trouble with the place names as well. But the author kept my attention. The overall story seems to be that the West stood aside as the Greeks revolted against Turkish rule and Greece was largely destroyed but when the Greeks were on the brink of losing the West intervened and gave the Greeks their independence. Much of what happens does foreshadow later peacekeeping activities.

A Forgotten Revolution

Everyone knows of c!radical Greece but the story of the making of modern Greece through revolution against its Ottoman oppressors is even further distant to today's reader's. This book goes a long way to raising the veil of the struggle that made the Greece we know now and tied it to the revolutions that evolved into modern Europe's rise of democracies and fall of empires.

Excellent, had it not been for the narrator

This is an excellent short overall history of the Greek Revolution but, like other Mazower books that I have read, it does requires some previous background knowledge. For a Greek like me, who grew up being taught the basics over and over again in school, this was not a problem. Indeed, it was refreshing and enlightening to see things being put into perspective and the various actors presented in their real dimensions, rather than being he heroes plastered all over the walls of our schools, that we were supposed to unquestionably admire. However, for someone that knows nothing about the Greek revolution, this books can appear a little confusing and leave many questions open, or subjects only superficially touched upon.

This said, the narrator's performance is horrible. Granted, his life was not made easy by the author, who has peppered his (English) text with countless Greek words and names, presumably transcribed into the Latin alphabet (which complicates things even more) but, honestly, I can't imagine anyone doing a worse job of it! Shouldn't John Lee have at least made an effort to understand some basic rules of Greek spelling, before attempting to read Greek words or names? For instance, was there nobody around to tell him that the word "etaireia" (Society) in the name of the "Filiki Etaireia" (Friendly Society, the secret society that organised the Greek Uprising) is to be read, according to the (admittedly tricky) Greek spelling rules as "eteria" rather than reading all vowels individually and coming up with a ridiculous result? There are countless examples of such misreadings. And don't get me started on stress! It's almost comical, you could bet that whenever a Greek word came up, the narrator would stress the wrong syllable! There can't be more than a handful of Greek words or names in the book that he's managed to stress properly. Add to that an annoying habit of mumbling at the end of a sentence, which means that you don't even understand English words. It was such a relief when the author came back on, to read the epilogue. He should have done the whole book!

The Geek Revolution

Ones sovereigntie. should not be discoraged no one has the right to do that,it also breads I’ll will no happiness are freedom to anyone.It was a great sacrifice to resurrect the Independens of Greece

You butchered the Greek Pronunciation on many names.

Somehow Audible was able to make sure the French and German name pronunciations were on point but for the Greek name pronunciations they couldn’t take the time to actually consult with any Greek speaker if everything sounded alright. Extra accents and weird pauses were added when saying names and words like Karaiskakis. It seems even the Ottoman names were given more analysis on pronunciation. Great respect to Mazower as he is always a great author. Too bad Audible was too lazy or negligent to take the time to make sure they got Greek pronunciations down.