BRADDOCK, J.,
The Greek Phoenix.
Constable, London, 1972. 1st ed. XII,233p. Original red hard bound with dust wrps. Spine gilt titled. Dust wrps protected with adapta-roll. Small stamp on paste-down endpaper. ‘Regrettably, at least for the serious historian, Joseph Braddock’s ‘Greek Phoenix’ adds another title to the long list of readable but not informative studies of the Greek campaign to overthrow Turkish rule. The author does not pretend to investigate the subject in any depth, which in any case would have proved difficult, since he seeks to describe Greek politics and society from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the coming of Otho, the first king of Greece, in 1833. Also, Braddock falls victim to his slim bibliography of exclusively standard English sources. His analysis, highly literary but not startlingly interpretive, tends to be shallow on the political developments in Greek society and superficial on the intricacies of European diplomacy from 1815 to 1833. A pro-British bias emerges occasionally and in one instance results in false information. (…) The author does achieve the objective proposed in the preface of ‘reproducing the ‘colour and atmosphere of the scenes chosen’, and revealing the ‘principal characters as living men and women’ (p.XI). Biographical material and entertaining anecdotes on the careers of distinguished personalities such as Ali Pasha of Yannina, Makriyannis, Karaiskakis, Kolokotrones, and Lord Byron, among others, provide lively reading. Hence the person who desires a simplistic but well-written presentation of the Greek Revolution can read this book with some profit. The close observer of contemporary Greek politics might deride Braddock’s use of the mythological phoenix in the title. The legendary bird behind a soldier with bayonet became the official symbol of the recent regime in Greece, thus reducing the phoenix to a hollow cliché.’ (S VICTOR PAPACOSMA in Slavic Review, 1973, p.849-850).
€ 22.00
(Antiquarian)