The experience of mass population movements was decisive for the nation-states that emerged from the dissolution of the three major continental empires, particularly in the Balkans. The "short" Greek Interwar period (1922-1940) was characterized by efforts to homogenize an ethnically and culturally diverse population, as well as by attempts at contradictory reform interventions.
Combining approaches from researchers in different fields, starting points, and perspectives, the studies in this volume trace the fluidity that characterized that era's class affiliations, political interventions, and ideological identities. More specifically, they examine the policies of spatial formation through arteries, nodes, and places of memory; the subordination of the countryside to national legitimacy; the formation of new social and political subjects; and the efforts to integrate refugees as processes of state adaptation to the international context. The threads they unravel allow us to identify the particularities and similarities of the Interwar period both in relation to other periods of Greek history and in relation to contemporary international developments.
In an era where theories of the "clash of civilizations" and essentialist views of social phenomena tend to equate the past with an endless sequence of anniversaries outside of history, these studies show the importance of social history for an understanding of the past based on the specific analysis of specific data.