Short History of Modern Greece - Richard Clogg - Paperback Book

A great introduction to modern Greek History by an author who is considered an authority on the subject. It covers the adventurous history of Greece from the pre-revolution years in late 18th century up to 2013 and the culmination of the economic crisis. The chapters are equally divided and each covers one or two major events, no footnotes to disrupt your reading, just some carefully chosen photographs to highlight the text. Some of the photos are actually very entertaining, like the staged photograph of the royal couple greeted by super-happy political prisoners in some island of exile or the three generations of Papandreou prime ministers and the text below explaining how family ties in Greece are strong even in Parliament by mentioning other famous political families as well.
In fact this is exactly how a history book should be written and read, with accuracy, truthfulness, boldness and of course a great deal of self-command. The author does not hide his admiration for certain political figures, such as Venizelos, but his argumentation proves him right. Also, his critical observations about the foul elements of Greek political life are very accurate, mentions nearly every single financial scandal committed in the past decades, criticizes nepotism as a ruling characteristic of the political machinations, the rise of the extreme right etc.
However, the ending lines are full of hope (consider this a spoiler!) with the author expecting the Greek people to exit the terrible current situation as they did so many times in the past.