Liberation Movements in the Balkans and Southeast Europe, 1821-1949

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

In the century-plus between the opening of the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the end to the Greek Civil War in 1949, the Balkans and Southeast Europe as a whole saw a wide variety of liberation movements emerge. There is no neat and tidy story one can tell about this period of formation and fracture. However, there are certain themes that run throughout the narrative, e.g. ethnic solidarity based on shared anti-Muslim beliefs, competing centers of alleged national homelands, liberal and communist critiques of nationalist myths, and etc. This roundtable explores such themes as: Maniot slavers in the Adriatic during the 1820s and their influence on the abolition movement in Europe, conflicts over which nation held the right to liberate (and thus control) Macedonia, travel accounts as sources for liberation movements in the Balkans, and the way that liberatory ideas both unified and divided Greek society from WWII to the civil war that followed. Our roundtable seeks to test established interpretations of these and other topics against emerging theories based on new evidence and ideas that, we argue, deserve consideration in the field.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• Matt Lee Miller, U of Northwestern-St. Paul

Roundtable Members

• Gregory Lynn Bruess, U of Northern Iowa

• Lucien J Frary, Rider U

• John Athanasios Mazis, Hamline U

• Leslie Rogne Schumacher, Harvard U