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Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.

Greeks arrived in America with the expectation that freedom would permit their families to thrive and be successful. With hard work, belief in the Orthodox faith, and commitment to education, Greeks ascended in Chicago, and America, to positions of responsibility and success. Today Greek Americans are among the wealthiest and most successful of immigrant groups. Greeks recognized a historical imperative that they meet the challenges and aspirations of a classical Hellenic heritage. Greeks in Chicago celebrates the rich history of the Greek community through copious pictorial documentation.

This work examines Greek political life and Eleftherios Venizelos from 1910 to 1936. To better understand the Greek political scene and Venizelos’ meteoric rise and ungraceful fall and to provide the necessary context, this book also considers politics on the island of Crete, Venizelos’ birthplace, from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. This work is not a biography of Eleftherios Venizelos. Instead, Venizelos is the instrument used to shed light into the unsettled waters of Greek politics.

Modern Greece, since gaining its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, has been a weak country dependent upon great powers. The weakness of the country, its location, and the strategic interests of the Great Powers have invited foreign intervention in the affairs of Greece. An examination of the history and politics of modern Greece would reveal that most crises and important policy decisions were related to foreign pressure. Modern Greece has had a history of being involved in patron-client relationships, with Greece as the client and France, Russia, England, the United States and, since 1981, the European Community/European Union as the patrons. As a client nation-state, Greece has had its sovereignty compromised by its patron as well as by other more powerful nation-states.