The Greeks: A Global History
Book Author: Roderick Beaton
What if Greek history is less about a shape on a map and more about a portable social system for identity and ideas across a decentralized network of people?
Reading The Greeks: A Global History by Roderick Beaton can give us lessons about culture and society based on more than three thousand years of testing. One of the key first lessons in reading this history, or any history, is to understand who wrote the history. The English word Greeks can be traced back to the Romans and the Latin word Graeci, while the Greeks referred to themselves as Hellenes.
The story starts a long time ago, before the Classical Age of Greece. The Mycenaeans were a Greek-speaking civilization of warriors and traders who declined about three thousand three hundred years ago. We know much more about subsequent eras with the rise of written history. This includes the Greek world of competing city-states, followed by the reign of Greek-speaking kings from Macedonia, including Alexander the Great. The expansion of this empire spread the Greek language across a much larger area, similar to how other languages such as English expanded influence in later eras. Of course, we can only experience this written history through the views of these writers and their biases.
The Greeks were then conquered by the Romans, but managed to preserve their language and culture. Over time, Christianity became increasingly important, and yet the Greeks continued to adapt to the situation as part of what is now known as the Byzantine Empire, a name that was created after this empire ended. Events took another twist with the Ottoman rule over Greece which lasted several centuries. During all these turbulent times, the Greeks spread out across various empires and countries, establishing a network that transcended physical limitations.
The push for an independent Greek state continued to increase over time, and the country was formally recognised in 1830. Even then, it took several years to overcome both internal and external challenges to the process. At the time of independence, more than 75% of the Greek population lived outside of Greece. So even with an independent Greek state after thousands of years being ruled by other empires, a core aspect of the Greeks was the network outside of Greece.
The history of Greece as an independent country brought new challenges, including the Great War, now known as World War I, followed by World War II. In between these events, the rise of Turkey resulted in additional tension and population migration. More recently, Greece has continued to deal with changes such as becoming a tourist hotspot, joining the Euro, facing a severe financial crisis, and dealing with persistent inward migration. Beyond the Greek nation, Greek communities have expanded to the United States, Australia, German, Canada, the UK, and many other countries.
Over the various cycles of Greek history, we see that many different civilizations rose and fell, for various reasons. And yet the essence of Greek culture has endured. Beaton’s view is that adaptive skills are important in explaining why Greek culture has transcended time.
Another fundamental aspect of enduring culture is stories as history. Some of them are pure fiction. The rest are a mix of fact and fiction in various proportions. Having these stories written down and then preserved through generations over the millennia was a key foundation to maintain Greek culture over time. Buildings fall away, borders move, but stories can endure.
The history of the Greeks is not a tidy one line slogan. And the book respects the chaos, reviewing the various wars, intrigues, and drama within Greek society. That the Greeks have endured might even be partly because of this internal chaos making them suited to deal with the external chaos around them.
Why I Recommend This Book
This book is relevant for anyone who has to deal with people and systems from other cultures. This could be in companies, education, cities, governments, or other networks. In a world where cultural differences are increasingly used to create friction and conflict, understanding different cultures is becoming a more scarce and valuable skill.
Building enduring cultures is an even harder challenge. This book makes clear that shared stories are core to culture. Perhaps less intuitive is the importance of having a dynamic and decentralized network which can adapt to a changing environment.
Regardless of whether you’re thinking about culture for a three day trip or the next three thousand years, there are surely relevant lessons to be learned from the history of the Greeks.
