Description

During and after World War I, over one million Ottoman Greeks were expelled from Turkey, a watershed moment in Greek history that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. And while few dispute the expulsion’s tragic scope, it remains the subject of fierce controversy, as activists have fought for international recognition of an atrocity they consider comparable to the Armenian genocide. This book provides a much-needed analysis of the Greek genocide as cultural trauma. Neither taking the genocide narrative for granted nor dismissing it outright, Erik Sjoberg instead recounts how it emerged as a meaningful but contested collective memory with both nationalist and cosmopolitan dimensions.

Publisher Review

"Sjoberg maintains a sober balance between respect for the reality of historical trauma and critical interrogation of historians' and activists' methods. This is an excellent study that also offers insightful analysis into how new transnational memory cultures have emerged since the 1980s." * Hans-Lukas Kieser, University of Zurich