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Edinburgh Leventis Studies

The Greek Revolution of 1821European Contexts, Scottish Connections

Edited by Roderick Beaton and Niels Gaul

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£105.00

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About this book

Explores little-known contexts of the Greek Revolution, especially the previously unrecognised Scottish dimension of the international movement known as Philhellenism
  • Makes authoritative and original contributions on the international context of the Greek Revolution of the 1820s, drawing on latest interdisciplinary research
  • Establishes for the first time connections between the Enlightenment (with its legacy) in Scotland and Greece
  • Enriches the rapidly growing field of Classical Reception/Classical Tradition Studies with application to Greece and Scotland in the 1820s
  • Proposes a new and previously unrecognised dimension to the international movement known as Philhellenism during the 1820s, namely the contribution of Scots

Political history and history of ideas, art history, theories of nations and nationalism, Classical Reception studies, modern Greek history and modern Scottish history come together in this collection of essays by experts in all these fields. The starting point for the volume is the bicentenary of the Greek Revolution (1821–1832), for the first time linked to the cultural and intellectual history of Scotland, and particularly of Edinburgh, during roughly the same period. The book’s two parts respectively contextualise the struggle for Greek national independence in space and time, and explore the engagement of Scots with Greece during the period, as well as parallels between the two nations. Throughout, the Greek Revolution and its Scottish supporters are viewed in relation to the Classical Tradition, or Classical Reception.

This pioneering book makes a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Greek Revolution during the anniversary decade, and raises issues of national identity and self-determination that have contemporary resonances in both Greece and Scotland, at opposite ends of Europe, today.

Reviews

The Greek Revolution of 1821: European Contexts, Scottish Connections is a staggering testament to just how international the Greek War of Independence was: in its origins, vision, scope and consequences. The volume's penetrating and interconnected essays add new layers of understanding to how the Greek revolution reverberated throughout Europe and beyond, even as the in-depth exploration of its uniquely Scottish connections reveals a compelling chapter of European intellectual history. There is much of interest -- and surprise -- here for the expert and relative newcomer alike.
A landmark collection of essays, The Greek Revolution of 1821: European Contexts, Scottish Connections masterfully links the Greek struggle for independence with the intellectual vitality of the Scottish Enlightenment. Redefining philhellenism and offering profound insights that resonate with contemporary discussions of nationalism, identity and cultural exchange, this volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolution.
Table of contents

List of Illustrations

Editors’ Preface

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Greek and Scottish Identities from the Enlightenment to the ‘Age of Revolution’, Roderick Beaton

PART I: EUROPEAN CONTEXTS

1. ‘Unspoken Assumptions’: Prophecies and Rumours in the Age of Greek Independence, Richard Clogg

2. Russia’s Byzantine Heritage: Sixteenth-Century Myths and Eighteenth-Century Realities, Lucien Frary

3. Translating the French Revolution: People, Commitments, Texts, Method, Sanja Perovic

4. ‘The Grand Sacrifice’: Violence and Revolution in Adamantios Korais’s Asma Polemistirion (1800), Simos Zenios

5. The Philiki Etaireia and Freemasonry: Secret Communication, the Public Sphere and Social Ideas, Julia Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister

PART II: SCOTTISH CONNECTIONS

6. ‘Finer than the Acropolis’: Edinburgh, the Parthenon and the Scottish Genius, Matteo Zaccarini

7. ‘A faithless truant to the classic page’: Sir Walter Scott, Greek, Greece and the Greeks, Iain Gordon Brown

8. Through ‘the Eye of an Experienced Traveller’: Robert Wilson (1787–1871) in Ottoman and Revolutionary Greece, Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis

9. Thomas Gordon and the Ghost of Tripolitsa: A Study in Private Conflict and Public Relations, Alasdair C. Grant

10. George Finlay and the Greek Revolution of 1821: Scottish Enlightenment and Transnational Liberalism in Revolutionary Europe, Michalis Sotiropoulos

11. George Finlay, the Founding Figures of Greek National Historiography and Iconoclast Emperor Leon III: Byzantine Paratexts of Revolution, Niels Gaul

12. Edward Masson: Caledonian Witness to the Fortunes of Modern Greece, Vassiliki Kolocotroni

13. John Stuart Blackie and the Pronunciation of Ancient Greek, Gonda Van Steen

Afterword

14. Parallel Lives at the Limits of Europe: Enlightenment and Nation-Building in Scotland and Greece, Paschalis M. Kitromilides

Index

About the contributors

Roderick Beaton

Roderick Beaton grew up in Edinburgh, where he first began to study (ancient) Greek at George Watson’s College. For thirty years until his retirement in 2018 he held the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King’s College London, and is now Emeritus. In 2021 he returned to his birthplace as A. G. Leventis Visiting Professor of Greek at The University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Fellow of King’s College (FKC), and Commander of the Order of Honour of the Hellenic Republic. He is currently Chair of the British School at Athens. His most recent books are:The Greeks: A Global History (Faber, UK; Basic, USA, 2021), The Greek Revolution of 1821 and its Global Significance (Aiora, 2021), Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (Allen Lane/Penguin, 2019) and Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

Niels Gaul

Niels Gaul is the A. G. Leventis Professor of Byzantine Studies and Head of Classics at the University of Edinburgh. His recent books include The Greek Revolution of 1821: European Contexts, Scottish Connections (2024), co-edited with Roderick Beaton, and The Post-1204 Byzantine World: New Directions and Novel Approaches (2026), co-edited with Mike Carr and Yannis Stouraitis.