Athens alive, or, The practical tourist's companion to the fall of man /
Athens alive, or, The practical tourist's companion to the fall of man / Practical tourist's companion to the fall of man. [compiled and translated by] Kevin Andrews. - Athens : Hermes, 1979. - 354 p. ; 21 cm.
Bibliography: p. 327-332. Includes index.
"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 a 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 eighty-eight 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, early Christians, Byzantine and other medieval chroniclers, Ottoman and Occidental conquerors, travellers, pilgrims, agents, Grand-Tourists, and Athenians themselves during the Turkish occupation, the Greek Revolution, and the travails of the country's limited independence through the 19th 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, both in Athens and the wider international arena."-- Publihser's description.
English and French.
Athens (Greece)--Description and travel
Athens (Greece)--History
914.9512
Bibliography: p. 327-332. Includes index.
"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 a 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 eighty-eight 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, early Christians, Byzantine and other medieval chroniclers, Ottoman and Occidental conquerors, travellers, pilgrims, agents, Grand-Tourists, and Athenians themselves during the Turkish occupation, the Greek Revolution, and the travails of the country's limited independence through the 19th 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, both in Athens and the wider international arena."-- Publihser's description.
English and French.
Athens (Greece)--Description and travel
Athens (Greece)--History
914.9512