Umut Özkırımlı

Spyros A. Sofos

A comparative study of nationalism in Greece and Turkey. This book traces the emergence and development of the Greek and Turkish nationalist projects, challenging the received wisdom about the inevitability of the rise of a 'Greek' and a 'Turkish' nation.

Nationalism in Greece and Turkey

Tormented by History

Brian Jenkins

The resilience of nationalism in contemporary Europe may seem paradoxical at a time when the nation state is widely seen as being 'in decline'. The contributors of this book see the resurgence of nationalism as symptomatic of the quest for identity and meaning in the complex modern world. Challenged from above by the supranational imperatives of globalism and from below by the complex pluralism of modern societies, the nation state, in the absence of alternatives to market consumerism, remains a focus for social identity. Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe takes a fully interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the 'national question'. Individual chapters consider the specifics of national identity in France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Iberia, Russia, the former Yugoslavla and Poland, while looking also at external forces such as economic globalisation, European supranationalism, and the end of the Cold War. Setting current issues and conflicts in their broad historical context, the book reaffirms that 'nations' are not 'natural' phenomena but 'constructed' forms of social identity whose future will be determined in the social arena.

Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe

Tormented by History traces the emergence and development of the Greek and Turkish nationalist projects over the past two hundred years. Grounded in an extensive critical review of the historiography and literature on Greek and Turkish nationalisms, this volume challenges the common belief that the rise of a Greek and a Turkish nation was inevitable. Umut zkirimli, a Turk, and Spyros A. Sofos, a Greek, acknowledge the complexity of the relationship between the two nationalisms and examine issues concerning the politics of language, religion, memory, history, territory, and landscape. They address the complex processes of homogenization, marginalization, and minoritization of populations and cultures as well as institutional support of Greek and Turkish nationalism. They also discuss the place of constitutive violence, both physical and symbolic, in the nationalist imagination, and the ensuing trauma and sense of loss that came out of the consolidation of Greek and Turkish identities.

Spyros A. Sofos

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