Ebook: Greece: biography of a modern nation

1. East meets west? -- 2. A seed is sown -- 3. Born in blood -- 4. First steps -- 5. Ideals and sorrows of youth -- 6. Military service -- 7. The self divided -- 8. Starting over -- 9. Meltdown -- 10. Uncle Sam's protégé -- 11. Coming of age in Europe -- 12. Midlife crisis?;How did Greece come to be so powerfully attached to the legacy of the ancients in the first place, and then define an identity for themselves that is at once Greek and modern? This book reveals the remarkable achievement, during the last 300 years, of building a modern nation on, sometimes literally, the ruins of a vanished civilisation. This is the story of the Greek nation-state but also, and perhaps more fundamentally, of the collective identity that goes with it. It is not only a history of events and high politics, it is also a history of culture, of the arts, of people and of ideas.