Originally published on February 7, 2022 (Episode 247)
Introduction
For nearly 3,000 years, the question of what it means to be Greek has fascinated not only Greeks themselves but the world beyond. How a collection of small cities and kingdoms around the northeastern Mediterranean Sea laid down precepts for science, the arts, politics, law, and philosophy is one of history’s great stories. Their influence extended far beyond the Mediterranean—long after the so-called zenith of their civilization—not just through ideas but through trade, missionary work, and diaspora.
Roderick Beaton surveys these millennia in his magisterial The Greeks: A Global History (Basic Books, 2021). His book charts how Hellenic identity has been made, remade, and projected outward, from the classical polis to the global diaspora of the 20th century.
About the Guest
Roderick Beaton is Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature at King’s College London. A Fellow of the British Academy, he is one of the foremost authorities on modern Greek literature and intellectual history.
For Further Investigation
Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History (Basic Books, 2021)
Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (Chicago, 2019)
Anthony Kaldellis, The Byzantine Republic: People and Power in New Rome (Harvard University Press, 2015)
📖 Related Historically Thinking:
The Forgotten City with Paul Cartledge (on Thebes)
Philip of Macedonia, and Son with Adrian Goldsworthy
💬 Listen & Discuss
How should we think about “Greekness”? As ideas, as political institutions, as a living culture? Share your reflections in the comments — and pass this conversation along to a friend who’s fascinated by the classical world and its afterlives.
