Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38193 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-17
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Independent
`A splendid narrative history'

The Times
'...is simply, but not simplistically, structured, this is an exemplary work. Mazower...writes beautifully.'

The Economist
'He [Mazower] has produced a brilliant reconstruction of one of Europe's great meting places between the three monotheistic faiths'

Customer Reviews

Historically accurate and highly enjoyable
If you are interested in the history of Greece, of the Balkans, or of the Ottoman Empire, this beautifully written book is not to be missed. I disagree with the reviewer Yorgos who wrote that Mazower adopts the "stubborn and annoying British habit of calling the city "Salonica."" Mazower's book is about the history of the city from the the Ottoman conquest to the end of the 20th century, which is more than five centuries. During this period the city was called "Selanik" by the Ottomans, "Solun" by the Slavs, "Salonico" by the Sephardic Jews and "Saloniki" by Greeks. The ancient name "Thessalonike" (modern pronunciation: "Thessaloníki") was restored after the Greek conquest (1912) and it is still used today. "Salonica" is simply a shorter form of the Latin name, which was "Thessalonica".
With the exception of this point, I applaud Yorgos's review and I refer any potential buyers or readers to his very helpful text.

Palimpsest
Mark Mazower's majestic narrative about a wondrous city is everything that a popular history book should be. Ambitious in scope, it covers more than five centuries of turbulent history. It also provides intimate detail of everyday life, and excellent analysis of the political, military, ethnological, religious, cultural and economic background, all rooted in firm scholarship. The book is highly readable and evocative of lost times and cultures.

My only quibble, as a Greek who grew up in the city, is Mazower's adoption of the stubborn and annoying British habit of calling the city "Salonica." Maybe he felt calling it Thessaloniki, its original ancient and current official name, would implicitly take sides in the nationalist debates of the 20th century. But this is a minor quibble. The book is a very useful corrective to the official histories three generations of schoolchildren have been taught, which insist on the continuity of Hellenism and conveniently erase the many other ethnic, cultural and religious threads that made up the tapestry that was the city. The largest void in the middle of Thessaloniki's collective consciousness, the ghost among us, the corpse under the surface, is of course the history of the Jewish community. Tens of thousands of Spanish Jews settled there right after being expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. For over four centuries they made up the largest community in the city, spoke 15th-century Castillian Spanish, governed their own affairs, and thrived under the protection of the Ottomans. In 1912, Thessaloniki was conquered (or liberated, according to Greek history) by the Greek army. Without Ottoman protection, the Jewish community was uneasy, but there was little oficial or unoffical antisemitism. Poverty, economic depression and occasionally violent trade union activity were the main problems.

This centuries-old community was suddenly extinguished by the Nazi "final solution." The city was under direct German military rule since the beginning of Greece's Axis occupation. In 1943, Thessaloniki's Jews were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz. Only 5% of them survived. Despite some efforts by Christians (including my own father) to shelter or help Jews escape, almost the entire community followed its chief rabbi into the cattle trucks without protest, either of their own or by non-Jews.

What followed the war was not to Greece's credit. With the Jewish community gone, its libraries looted and synagogues dynamited by the Germans, most properties were never returned to the few survivors. The biggest shame was the destruction of the enormous, centuries-old Jewish cemetary; the city's University stands on its site.

A similar erasure of Thessaloniki's Muslim past has also taken place. Only one minaret survives from the dozens that dotted the city. Muslims were expelled in 1923-4, after one million Greeks and Orthodox Christians were expelled form Turkey (and untold tens of thousands murdered) by Mustafa Kemal's army at the end of the 1920-22 Greek-Turkish war. This enormous upheaval was termed a "population exchange": a clinical term hiding untold suffering and tragedy on all sides.

Today there is no question the city is Greek. Heavily settled by refugees from Turkey and migrants from rural areas, covered by high-rise apartment buildings, Thessaloniki is a bustling, modern city. From "mother of Israel" it became the "mother of the poor" and is now a hard-working and hard-partying city. Its Byzantine churches are without parallel anywhere in the world. Thessaloniki's officially monoglot and monocultural character, however, does not stop the "ghosts" that Mazower refers to from coming to the surface. The city's people have varied pasts, and its cuisine remains a mirror of that, still heavily influenced by Ottoman richness. A rediscovery of the Jewish and Muslim past is on its way, despite sometimes ugly reactions by nationalist and religious bigots who, sadly, still have a lot of power in local politics. Mazower's book, as well as being very informative and enjoyable, is a very useful addition to the process of exorcising the ghosts and reclaiming the complex and rich past of this beautiful city.

Superb history
This book achieves the difficult feat of combining incredible research and a feel for the human stories and incidents that make history come alive. Unlike other history books I've read recently (eg Stalin: In the Court of the Red Tsar), Mazower is a gifted writer who never lets the history overwhelm the story. His use of particular anecdotes to illustrate the history of this unique city brings the story alive.

As a Greek, everything I read in this very honest book rings true. I hope the book gains the wider readership it so richly deserves both in Greece and elsewhere.
Highly recommended.