History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece

by Daniel Knight

Overview

History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece explores how the inhabitants of a Greek town face the devastating consequences of the worst economic crisis in living memory. Knight examines how the inhabitants draw on the past to contextualize their experiences and build strength that will enable them to overcome their suffering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137501486
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	05/20/2015
Edition description:	2015
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Author Daniel M. Knight: Daniel M. Knight is Addison Wheeler Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, UK.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Prosperity and Crisis 2. Ethnography on the Plain of Thessaly 3. Return of the Tsiflikades : Crisis and Land Tenure 1881-1923 4. Hungry with the Same Famine 5. Things to Forget, Things to Remember: The Greek Civil War 6. Public Faces: Food and Protest in the Current Crisis 7. Transforming the Public Sphere 8. Status in Crisis 9. Conclusions: Past, Future, and Beyond

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The Greek crisis has largely been addressed as a drama of loan repayments and fiery public protests. In this evocative ethnography, Knight captures the sense of temporal vertigo induced in an ordinary local community as assumptions about continuing prosperity give way to the apprehension that unfortunate past times are returning. This book is must reading for anyone wishing to understand the social experience and human cost of financial crisis." - Charles Stewart, University College London, UK, and author of Dreaming and Historical Consciousness in Island Greece (2012)

"Knight's book is a masterful example of how history and anthropology together can explain the tensions of the present through the understanding of how memories of the past are recalled. Like Walter Benjamin's angel of history, being blown backwards towards the future while contemplating the ruins of the past, contemporary Greeks engage with the transformations in their political economic position while making sense of them in terms of past localized experiences. This is a timely and magnificent piece of scholarship." -Susana Narotzky, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Barcelona, Spain

"This is a dynamite book, the first ethnographic exploration of everyday life during the Greek Crisis; it is also an engaging meditation on rethinking memory and history, and the fascinating, multi-folded ties of present experience to images of the past. This is far from simply of scholarly interest; questions about what histories are relevant to the present are being debated as part of a struggle over the future of the European Union. Knight's book will undoubtedly enrich these debates. It is a timely contribution, accessibly written, which will make an excellent text for the classroom, as well as for wider discussion." - David E. Sutton, Professor of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, USA

Editorial Reviews

Describes how people in Trikala on the plain of Thessaly reach out towards selective instances of the past that assist them in understanding the turmoil around them. … the study is an intriguing addition to our understanding of the immense impact that the Greek crisis has on individual lives and the wider fabric of society. … the book is written in a highly readable and accessible manner and has potential to reach out even toward a non-academic audience.” (Janka Hrckova, Focaal Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, Vol. 78, 2017)

From the Publisher