Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey

Umut Ozkirimli and Spyros A. Sofos

April, 2008
Cloth, 320 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-70052-8
$45.00

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 Özkirimli, 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.

Related Subjects

• European History

About the Author

Umut Özkirimli is associate professor of politics and the director of the Center for Turkish-Greek Studies at Istanbul Bilgi University. His previous publications include Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction and Contemporary Debates on Nationalism: A Critical Engagement. Spyros A. Sofos is senior research fellow in European and international studies at the European Research Centre, Kingston University, London. He is the coauthor of Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe and Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Networks.

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