Athens Alive - Or the Practical Tourist's Companion to the Fall of Man

In English. Soft cover, 21 cm, 356 pp.; net weight 540 gr. The progress from generator of European civilization to late Roman university town already crumbling but living off its past, to waste land where the past was unknown to its inhabitants, to provincial village under enemy rule, to beleaguered citadel in a Greece rebelling against its foreign overlords, to capital of a buffer state set up to suit the governments of Europe oscillating between the liberalism and counter-revolution of the 1830s, to the flashy smog-choked industrial holiday-and-boom-town of today, is unique in the history of cities. This collection of 88 writings from the 4th century AD to 1940 spans an age when, for most of the outside world, Greece was a myth and Athens off the map. That Greeks were not a mythical race, and that even a shattered and denuded Athens remained an integral part of European and Middle Eastern history, is demonstrated here in the pages of late pagans, oarly Christians, Byzantine and other medieval chroniclers, Ottoman and Occidental conquerors, travellers, pilgrims, agents, Grand-Tourists, and Athenians themselves during the Turkish occupation, the Creek Revolution and the travails of the country's limited independence through the 18th century into the first half of the 20th. These sources give an incisive and often prophetic picture of a city, a country and a people. Together with a commentary by the compiler that explores the direct bearing of this many-faceted history upon the present age in a place where three continents face each other across a narrow sea, they reveal some surprising aspects of the past and illuminate certain crucial problems of our own time, bath in Athens and the wider international arena. Read the contents' pages at the attached images.

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IMPORTANT: From time to time, we also have second hand copies of this book, in good condition, at a cheaper price; ask for details at dem.siatras@gmail.com