A Concise History of Greece, second edition.
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com; Wikipedia on the Author.
A volume in the series Cambridge Concise Histories.
This book consists mostly of political history of modern Greece (i.e., since Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire during the 1820s) with occasional mentions of economic and cultural history. The book has many illustrations, the lengthy captions to which contain most of the book's cultural history content. The book is relatively weak in economic history.
Links:
Greece, Wikipedia.
History of modern Greece, Wikipedia.
Greek culture, Wikipedia.
Economy of Greece, Wikipedia.
Western Europe, Wikipedia.
Balkans, Wikipedia.
See also my recent post on the book by Jason Manolopoulos,
Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community: link.
Addition, 10 Feb 2012:
The following table offers a summary of some major cultural, political and economic differences between Greece and western Europe. This may be obvious information for people well versed in History but for myself I think it's a useful tool to remind ourselves of the major differences between two very distinct regions. I find that too often in contemporary reporting on Greece's current government debt crisis these deeply ingrained cultural differences are not often mentioned and consequently most discussions fail to adequately explain why Greece's economic performance has been so different from that of western, and especially northwestern, Europe.
| time period | western Europe | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd - 5th centuries | Split of Roman Empire: Western Roman Empire | Split of Roman Empire: Eastern Roman Empire = Byzantine Empire |
| 5th century | final collapse of Western Roman Empire | Byzantine Empire ascendant |
| 5th - 15th centuries | Middle Ages; regional kingdoms | Byzantine Empire; Byzantine Greece; Medieval Greece |
| 7th century | Latin language persists as the common language of western Europe until the 17th/18th centuries when French emerges as the lingua franca of western Europe | Medieval Greek language becomes the official language of Byzantine Empire during 7th century and persists through that empire's end |
| 11th - 15th centuries | East-West Schism: Roman Catholic Christianity | East-West Schism: Eastern Orthodox Christianity |
| 15th century | successful resistance to Ottoman Empire expansion throughout 15th, 16th & 17th centuries, e.g., Siege of Vienna | final collapse of Byzantine Empire and subjugation to Ottoman Empire; Fall of Constantinople; Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 14th - 17th centuries | Renaissance; humanism | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 16th - 17th centuries | Scientific Revolution | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 16th century | Protestant Reformation | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| 18th century | Enlightenment | Ottoman Greece; Ottoman Greeks |
| late 18th century | French Revolution | beginning of Greek independence movement |
| early 19th century | suppression of revolutionary France and beginning of rise of bourgeois modern nation states | following conclusion of Napoleonic wars the victorious / dominant western powers extend their gaze beyond western Europe and undertake support of Greek independence movement |
| early 19th century, 1820s - 1830s | Romanticism intellectual movement; fantasies of ancient Greece (Philhellenism) motivate intellectuals' propagandizing for Greek independence from Ottoman Empire; poet Byron dies in Greece 1824 | Greek independence from Ottoman Empire achieved during 1820s; First Hellenic Republic |
| 19th century | Industrial Revolution and economic development | fledgling Greek state underwritten by European "Protecting Powers" (Britain, France and Russia) as part of their long-term strategy against Ottoman Empire; Kingdom of Greece; Greco-Turkish relations; Megali Idea |
| late 19th century | continuing economic and industrial development | Megali Idea; Greco-Turkish War (1897), Greece defeated; Greco-Turkish relations |
| early 20th century | continuing economic and industrial development | Megali Idea; Balkan Wars (1912-1913); National Schism; Greco-Turkish relations |
| World War I aftermath | recovery from World War I | Megali Idea; National Schism; Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), Greece defeated; domestic consequences of defeat shatter an already divided Greek society; expulsion of ethnic Greeks from Turkey; Second Hellenic Republic (1924-1935); Greco-Turkish relations |
| 1936 - 1941 | Fascism in western Europe (Spain, Italy, Germany) | "paternalist-authoritarian" Metaxas Regime (1936-1941) |
| World War II | World War II | Axis occupation of Greece during World War II |
| 1946 - 1949 | beginning of recovery from World War II; beginning of Cold War | Greek Civil War (1946-1949), the first Cold War conflict; results in another bitter division of Greek society that will lead to severe political dysfunction during 1960s |
| 1967 - 1974 | continuing robust economic growth | 1960s Greek political dysfunction leads to military dictatorship, 1967-1974; Metapolitefsi, period of post-junta restoration of civilian democratic government |
| 1974 - present | economic growth; Economy of the European Union; Eurozone | Third Hellenic Republic; Greco-Turkish relations |