William St Clair's meticulously researched and highly readable account of their aspirations and experiences was hailed as definitive when it was first published. Long out of print, it remains the standard account of the Philhellenic movement and essential reading for any students of the Greek War of Independence, Byron, and European Romanticism. Its relevance to more modern ethnic and religious conflicts is becoming increasingly appreciated by scholars worldwide.
This revised edition includes a new introduction by Roderick Beaton, an updated bibliography and many new illustrations.
That Greece Might Still Be Free: The Philhellenes in the War of Independence
William St Clair | November 2008
xxi + 419 | 35 illustrations and 5 maps | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN Paperback: 9781906924003
ISBN Hardback: 9781906924010
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781906924027
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781906924027
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781906924027
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0001
BIC subject codes: HBJ (Regional and national history), HBJD (European history), 1DVG (Greece), 3JH (circa 1800 to 1900); BISAC subject codes: HIS042000 (HISTORY/Europe/ Greece), HIS037060 (HISTORY/Modern/19th Century), HIS055000 (HISTORY / Middle East / Turkey & Ottoman Empire), HIS027130 (HISTORY / Military / Wars & Conflicts (Other)); OCLC Number: 779672187.
Introduction by Roderick Beaton
1. The Outbreak
2. The Return of the Ancient Hellenes
3. The Regiment
4. Two Kinds of War
5. The Cause of Greece, the Cause of Europe
6. The Road to Marseilles
7. Chios
8. The Battalion of Philhellenes
9. The Battle of Peta
10. The Triumph of the Captains
11. The Return Home
12. The German Legion
13. Knights and Crusaders
14. Secrets of State
15. Enter the British
16. Lord Byron joins the Cause
17. 'To bring Freedom and Knowledge to Greece'
18. Arrivals at Missolonghi
19. The Byron Brigade
20. Essays in Regeneration
21. The New Apostles
22. The English Gold
23. The Coming of the Arabs
24. The Shade of Napoleon
25. 'No freedom to fight for at home'
26. French Idealism and French Cynicism
27. Regulars Again
28. A New Fleet
29. Athens and Navarino
30. America to the Rescue
31. Later
Appendix I: Remarks on Numbers
Appendix II: The Principal Philhellenic Expeditions
Notes on the Select Bibliography
Select Bibliography
Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Material Since 1972
Notes
Index
© 2008 William St Clair
Yet it soon emerged that events were taking a very different turn. The moment the sultan realized that Russia would allow him to act unchecked, the rebellion in Moldavia was easily quashed. But in the Peloponnese the revolutionaries put the few Turks to the sword, and forced the remainder to take refuge in a handful of strongholds, while the rebellion spread to south Roumeli and the islands. And the strangest thing of all was that almost overnight, a powerful sympathy movement made its appearance in Europe: money was raised; poems were printed; societies and committees sprang up; vessels were chartered; and shiploads of volunteers began to sail for the lands in revolt. In what was for many an unanticipated paradox, philhellenism burgeoned overnight.
Wishing to comprehend that paradox and explain it to us, William St Clair wrote a captivating book that is a veritable fount of information. Never before had so many names of volunteers been recorded, never before had numbers been made available. This was a systematic attempt to classify and thus gain a deeper understanding of the various tendencies that led philhellenism to flourish; ever since it appeared progress has only been made in subordinate issues. So it was not without reason that when first published in 1972, the book was hailed as a classic. It has now been reissued with an updated bibliography and a new Introduction by Roderick Beaton. Demanding readers might have wished for a full chronology, which would aid a fuller and more analytic approach to the phenomenon.
Though it was never the author’s aim to write a strictly academic textbook, it has all the features that make for scholarship — systematic use of primary sources, exhaustive knowledge of the wider political context, erudition and an insistence on illuminating details.Yet the final target, the reader whom the author had in mind, was the educated European. And that is where the book’s chief virtue lies: though the author has a sound, often impressive grasp of all aspects of his topic, he leaves details aside so as to focus on the overall outline. This leads his readers to comprehend how and why certain cultured Europeans so doggedly sought to become involved in a bloodbath between Christians and Muslims at the western extreme of the Ottoman empire, at what was often great loss of life.
We may still be due one final chapter, offering a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon. Yet we can be sure that it will rest firmly on the foundations laid by St Clair’s book, which is why this reissue is to be warmly welcomed.