DIRECTOR’S BOOKSHELF
An Agora of Ideas
Seeger Center Director Dimitri Gondicas in conversation with historian Michalis Sotiropoulos
The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies supports more than a dozen fellows each year who conduct intensive research at Princeton. Former Seeger fellows have published hundreds of books with leading publishers and thousands of articles. Their scholarship reflects the broad, interdisciplinary nature of Hellenic Studies, spanning fields from history to religion to literature and periods from antiquity to the present.
In the March 15, 2024, edition of our Director’s Bookshelf series, Seeger Center Director Dimitri Gondicas speaks with historian Michalis Sotiropoulos about his new book, Liberalism after the Revolution: The Intellectual Foundations of the Greek State, c. 1830-1880. published by Cambridge University Press in December 2022. Sotiropoulos is the 1821 Fellow in Modern Greek Studies at the British School at Athens. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Seeger Center in the 2016-2017 academic year.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
How did this book project begin?
As is usually the case with one’s first book, it started with my Ph.D. thesis. I intended to publish two or three articles based on the thesis I submitted at Queen Mary University of London in 2015. As a Seeger fellow at Princeton, I decided to turn the thesis into a book. A year at the Seeger Center gave me the motivation and quality time – essential to scholars – to think about changes, revisions, and the overall framework for my arguments. It also made me aware of the need to carefully sharpen and polish what I said and how I said it.
What would you like your readers to learn from this book?
That Greek liberalism in the nineteenth century, and political languages in Greece generally, were not feeble; that Greece was not a backward society; that the Greek state in the nineteenth century (and the two centuries that followed) was not a failed state. Such value-laden views, which are sometimes prevalent in public discussions and history books about Greece, are not conducive to our understanding of the past.
I explore Greek liberalism by concentrating on a group of law scholars, whom I call “the jurists,” and show how they engaged in state-building and institutional reforms in Greece after independence from the Ottomans. I attempt to explain the turbulent history of nineteenth-century Greece. I also examine the many political transformations during this time: numerous revolts, the dethronement of one king, and the election of his successor. In addition, Greece promulgated two constitutions, including one in 1864 that was arguably one of the most liberal and democratic of that era. Changes like that do not sound like failures of liberalism to me.
Finally, I want readers to recognize that the Greek case can refine our understanding of the relationship between political ideas, reforms, and state-building – a field of inquiry that I see as the most promising for modern intellectual history.
Please tell us about your time at the Seeger Center and the research you conducted then.
My initial goal was to expand the comparative aspect of my work in nineteenth-century Greek liberalism, publishing a couple of articles that would locate Greek debates in a broad and increasingly global context. During my first few months at Princeton, I took advantage of the outstanding resources at Firestone Library and published several pieces, including one in the journal Modern Intellectual History. In my second semester at the Seeger Center, I created a proposal that was accepted by Cambridge University Press’ Ideas in Context series.
A transformative journey to Greece inspired Stanley J. Seeger to found Hellenic Studies programs at Princeton. Please tell us about a journey that expanded your intellectual horizons or influenced your research.
I don’t remember the exact line or who said it, but the gist is that some people may be born in one country but truly belong in another place. For me, that was the United Kingdom. I initially moved to the U.K. to complete my master’s degree at the University of York. But my second stay, as a doctoral candidate in London, proved crucial for my intellectual development. I dove into intellectual and global history, started teaching, gave my first lectures, and learned how to swim in deep academic waters. My two supervisors – former Seeger fellows Georgios Varouxakis and Maurizio Isabella – showed me how to swim and helped make this journey successful. I hope to repay my debt to them by mentoring others. Passing the torch, so to speak!
You will start a new position as Lecturer in Modern Greek Studies at the University of Edinburgh on 1 October 2024. Please tell us about your new role.
It is difficult to convey how excited I feel about this new beginning. This position is not only the first of its kind at the University of Edinburgh (School of History, Classics & Archaeology) but in Scotland more generally. The connections between Scotland and Greece are, of course, very old; let’s not forget that in the 18th century, Edinburgh modeled itself as the “Athens of the North”! I see this position as an excellent opportunity to think about the field of Modern Greek Studies, opening it to new vistas of research and to students who may have no experience with, or relationship with, Greece, Cyprus, or the diasporas. Many scholars have managed to do that, and I hope to draw from their experiences. Given my expertise in intellectual and global history, I believe that opening the field to global perspectives is the road ahead.