Description
Book SynopsisAn account of wartime Greece, exploring the impact of Nazi Occupation upon the lives and values of ordinary people. It seeks to offer a vividly human picture of resistance fighters and black marketeers, teenage German conscripts and Gestapo officers, Jews and starving villagers.
Trade Review"Fascinating. . . . [Mazower] succeeds in getting under the skin of the occupation. . . . [This book] conjures up, in vivid detail, life under an occupation that had shattered old certainties and replaced them with painful choices, cynical compromises and hopes undercut by the daily death toll."—Mark Almond, The Times
"[An] important book . . . sharply focused."—C.M. Woodhouse, Times Literary Supplement
"Mark Mazower's account of the Italo-German seizure of Greece . . . should make sense to anyone with a feel for truthful documentation. . . . An objective study."—Nigel Spivey, Financial Times
"Fascinating. . . . [Mazower] succeeds in getting under the skin of the occupation. . . . [This book] conjures up, in vivid detail, life under an occupation that had shattered old certainties and replaced them with painful choices, cynical compromises and hopes undercut by the daily death toll."—Mark Almond, The Times
"This is the first thorough account in English of almost every aspect of life in Axis-occupied Greece. It draws on a mass of material, including Greek wartime newspapers and German military archives. All of this is absorbed into a highly readable narrative and illustrated with sometimes heartbreaking contemporary photographs."—Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph
"Scholarly in its use of sources, yet rich in feeling and full of vivid descriptions. The account of tens of thousands of people starving to death is harrowing and appalling; the civil insurrection which followed and the ensuing acts of brutality on both sides are presented with equal pathos."—Max Davidson, Daily Telegraph
"[A] notable study . . . the first of its kind in English."—Publishers Weekly
"[Mazower's] elegant prose and meticulous eye for detail cut to the heart of the nature and effects of the occupation on Greek society and political life. . . . With its rich historical detail, vivid accounts, its sheer scope and perceptiveness, it is a must for the professional historian, and an eye-opener for the interested general reader."—Spyros Economides, The European
"One is glad to have [this book]. Mazower writes without fuss and takes analysis easily in the stride of his narrative."—Colin Richmond, Jane's Intelligence Review
"A vivid and penetrating insight into the political and military confusion of the period. . . . [Mazower's] understanding and grasp of this often contentious area of history has been well served by the fluency with which he relates it. It is a very well-written, readable and often moving book."—Imogen Grundon, Literary Review
"[A] sensitive, illuminating and richly textured account of painful, complex experience."—Richard Overy, The Observer
"A stupendous feat of personal and original research. . . . He has digested this heterogeneous material so thoroughly that his book is eminently readable. . . . A masterpiece of exposition."—N. G. L. Hammond, Anglo-Hellenic Review
"Mazower's book is a stupendous achievement and a work of immaculate scholarship."—History Today
"The book's focus on the experiences of everyday life in extreme circumstances gives it an immediacy and emotional impact that few readers will be able to ignore to forget. Mazower wears his scholarship lightly and writes without jargon, with detachment and yet with passion; readers will find themselves responding similarly."—Margaret E. Kenna, Ethnic & Racial Studies
"Mazower's work is to be highly commended. . . . This is a book which deserves the widest readership possible."—Martyn Housden, British Journal of Holocaust Education
"A book of great interest and originality. . . . Altogether this volume provides us with a refreshing exercise in revisionist history."—M.R.D. Foot, Slavonic Review
Joint Winner of the 1993 Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History
"One of the very best books in any language, to have been written on wartime Greece. Indeed . . . one of the most significant books to have been written on modern Greece as a whole."—Richard Clogg
"Mark Mazower's compelling and scholarly account of the occupation of Greece by the axis is doubly invaluable . . . Dr. Mazower's study of occupied Greece is based on an impressive range of archival and secondary sources in several languages. It is not only both comprehensive and readable but also topical."—Tim Kirk
"Mazower's crisp, dramatic presentation of all aspects of life in occupied Greece is a model of clarity and compactness. The politics of occupation, collaboration, resistance, and plain survival are elaborated in vivid detail. There is a brightness of vision in this work, which is as unyielding and unsentimental as the craggy beauty of Greece."—Ivo Banac
