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Rebels and Radicals: Icaria, 1600-2000
Icaria, a long, craggy and destitute isle in the Aegean Sea is visible from Turkey. The toil and travail of its people symbolizes the journey all Greek People made to achieve a modern society. But unlike other Greeks the Icarians often chose a dead end path. Never in agreement with those around them, the story of the Icariaians shows the best and the worst of Greek society. The Icarians were loyal subjects of the Ottoman Empire who, because of poverty and lack of resources, were not expected to pay heavy taxes while most Ottoman Greeks were dissatisfied with Turkish rule and dreamed of independence. But just before World War I, when the Greek government did not want to annex the island because of international complications, the Icarians expelled the Turks and demanded inclusion in the Greek State. At that time the bulk of the young men were escaping the grinding poverty of the island by immigrating to the United States. Although the majority of these men stayed in America and brought wives from the island to the New World, they maintained local ties. Their influence, both positive and negative, affected many qualities of Icarian life. The Icarians did not find their expectations fulfilled as part of Greece and remained disenchanted with their conditions through the twenties and thirties of the 20th century. The forties brought first, the Italians, then the Germans, and finally the British. After the turmoil, many Icarians supported radical political solutions to their problems, sympathizing with a native a guerrilla movement and rejecting efforts to improve their island, seeing only the great Capitalistic conspiracy at work. In the last decades of the 20th century the Icarians finally entered the modern but at a too rapid rate leaving the people unable to cope with some aspects of modernity. Anthony J. Papalas has assembled a true “peoples' history by bringing together unusual documents such as dowry agreements and Ottoman court records, memoirs, and accounts of Icaria by people who were involved in the events he describes, all interwoven with informative and perceptive descriptions from forty years of interviews with Icarians from all areas and conditions. Here is a history on the social level, not grand politics or great battles, but rather the everyday existence and immediate choices which, once made, shape succeeding events. Also Smell of Greek Athletics, Olympics, and Culture - ISBN 086516553X
Vergil's Selections from Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, and 12 - ISBN 0865164819 For over 30 years Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers has produced the highest quality Latin and ancient Greek books. From Dr. Seuss books in Latin to Plato's Apology , Bolchazy-Carducci's titles help readers learn about ancient Rome and Greece; the Latin and ancient Greek languages are alive and well with titles like Cicero's De Amicitia and Kaegi's Greek Grammar . We also feature a line of contemporary eastern European and WWII books. Some of the areas we publish in Selections From The Aeneid
Latin Grammar & Pronunciation
Greek Grammar & Pronunciation
Texts Supporting Wheelock's Latin
Classical author Vergil, Ovid, Horace, Catullus, Cicero
Vocabulary Cards For AP Vergil, Ovid, Catullus, Horace
Greek Mythology
Greek Lexicon
Slovak Culture And History
Vergil's Selections from Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, and 12 - ISBN 0865164819 For over 30 years Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers has produced the highest quality Latin and ancient Greek books. From Dr. Seuss books in Latin to Plato's Apology , Bolchazy-Carducci's titles help readers learn about ancient Rome and Greece; the Latin and ancient Greek languages are alive and well with titles like Cicero's De Amicitia and Kaegi's Greek Grammar . We also feature a line of contemporary eastern European and WWII books. Some of the areas we publish in Selections From The Aeneid
Latin Grammar & Pronunciation
Greek Grammar & Pronunciation
Texts Supporting Wheelock's Latin
Classical author Vergil, Ovid, Horace, Catullus, Cicero
Vocabulary Cards For AP Vergil, Ovid, Catullus, Horace
Greek Mythology
Greek Lexicon
Slovak Culture And History
356 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
19 people want to read
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October 28, 2022
I was interested in reading this book because the Greek island of Icaria is, despite being poor, a Blue Zone - that is, an island with a large number of centenarians, as well as a reputation as a left/radical island, filled with communists. This book covers Icarian history from the 17th century to the 21 century, especially the years of the second world war and civil war. Icarians did fall under the sway of communism as soon as the ideology began sweeping the globe after the success of the Russian Revolution, and despite the retreat of communism in Eastern Europe, and the tendency of more recent generations of Icarians, who have become more affluent and hence less political, the older generations still stick to their left-wing ideological beliefs. They are also the ones who tend to be the centenarians - also the ones who lived through famine and poverty, and the era when the island was backward, with few paved roads, almost no cars, mostly no electricity or plumbing, etc. The interesting thing to see will be if the latter, more affluent, Icarians life-span will continue to mark Icaria as a Blue Zone - or will affluence, a more relaxed lifestyle in general (the communists were quite ascetic - conservative socially) and a greater emphasis on the individual as opposed to the community - will translate into a shorter lifespan? The affluence on Icaria began with increased tourism, the construction of an airport, roads, more hotels - and Greece entering the EU. That was in the 1990s - and so in about 50 or 60 years, it will be possible to find out if it's affluence/development/"progress" itself that is at least partly to blame for the typical diseases of the West, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes - and that it was the lack of money, cars, roads, etc., that meant people had to constantly walk, engage in physical labor from the age of 12, that it was this former harder lifestyle that paradoxically led to the inhabitants of the island living long lives.
This thoroughly researched book by a scholar of classics, describes the rather sad history of the island since the fall of the Byzantine Empire - as it was subject to piracy, misrule, excessive taxation. Interestingly, the years of the latter Ottoman Empire weren't that bad - compared with the early years under Greek rule. Unfortunately, the island is not rich with respect to agriculture and so Icarians turned to converting forests into charcoal, which they would then load onto boats and sell all over Greece and even Alexandria, Egypt. The sad result of the business was the deforestation of the island and then the loss of topsoil. Livestock such as goats and sheep were once raised - but this too has disappeared as tourism replaced most of the former rural occupations. Areas of the hilly island were brought under cultivation by the construction of myriad small terraced fields - but these are uncultivated now.
Because the island was always so poor, many Icarians emigrated, especially to the US. The book traces the fortunes of Icarians in America - an interesting side-light. Like other Greeks who emigrated to the US, many worked to make enough money to return to Icaria and start a business or build a hotel etc. - while many others permanently stayed in the US. The book has a wealth of detail on the Icarian diaspora in the US. The early emigrants were active in trade unions and often were communists, just as they were in Icaria. However, later generations, as their level of affluence increased, became more right-wing or at least dropped their left-wing ideology.
This is an easy-to-read, well-researched, accessible history of a rather complex Greek island. It was once famous in antiquity for its spas, which were said to have healing properties. It had a nice temple near the shore - to Artemis. But centuries of deforestation, and then the constant threat of pirate raids, the heavy taxation, and so forth - led to a fearful, hidden population, living in very primitive conditions, camouflaged in the hills. People who tried to blend into the countryside to avoid the notice of pirates or bandits. People with nothing to begin with but who feared being robbed anyway in a land that was scarcely protected. Only when times were peaceful did the remaining residents venture back to the sea-side settlements.
Anyway, to return to the reason why I was interested in finding out more about this island: It is a Blue Zone island, and the reason for that is the large number of centenarians who live there. These people lived long enough to have grown up in extremely poor conditions - where hard work was the rule, and due to the isolation of the island, there was a limited food supply such that they had to mostly subsist on garden plots, locally grown food, olive oil, wine. I would say they likely had zero processed or industrially produced food, and likely rarely went to a restaurant - since many had no money at all and the economy was based on barter. They were dressed in rags, yet in their unheated homes, were able to withstand winter weather. The one thing these people all experienced was severe caloric restriction - in addition, they lived in a relatively small community where everyone was either related or knew each other. When the ideology of communism arrived in the early 20th C, the people - just about 100% of them - enthusiastically embraced it. Not too surprising, considering how poor they were and how they were likely already cooperating and sharing the little they had. The island was always famous for extending hospitality to anyone who came by, despite having so little. Probably the key reason these people live so long is the tightness of the community, the fact that the overwhelming majority were communists and hence there was little dissension in the community, and they were already sharing/helping each other long before the communist ideology arrived - that alone probably leads to longevity since doing good or helping others lowers inflammation since it releases endorphins. A more affluent lifestyle, with more leisure, less physical activity, more convenience, more obesity, more individualism, less community, we consider all that "progress" - what everyone strives for. The apotheosis of progress must be the universal adaptation of the cell phone - which seems to solve all problems, endlessly enlighten and amuse, and even perhaps replace the need to actually see people or have real-life experiences. This is of course the opposite of the way things once were, slower-paced, perhaps more formal in a way, but definitely less individualized, less atomized. Most Icarians didn't even have electricity up until at least the 1950s, and affluence only set in with the 1990s. Perhaps now it is becoming clear why Icaria is a Blue Zone and why the West - despite its affluence, progress, technology, riches - is mostly not a Blue Zone. It is the Western diet of junk food, or at least processed food, or vast quantities of any sort of food, it is the convenience of driving everywhere, everyone having cars, using elevators rather than walking up stairs, it is everything that is integral to the West, that leads to a shortened life-span relative to (once/poor) Icaria. It is the Icarians who lived decades in primitive, poverty-stricken conditions, but who had community - it is these people, even if they live in a newly-affluent island, who have made Icaria a Blue Zone. Certainly, Icaria - reading about it - provides food for thought. Anyone who is interested in finding out more about this fascinating Aegean island will want to read this book.
Here are some paraphrased/quotes from the book:
"According to...a Venetian historian of the 16th century, Icarians in 1481 petitioned the Knights [of St. John] for land in Rhodes. Wishing to [escape] ... Turkish pirates who were allegedly kidnapping their children ...they offered to surrender their freedom and live as serfs [in Rhodes]."
"...the Icarians from 1400 to 1800 seemed more [long-lived] ... than other Greeks... The well being of the population was not entirely the result of good air and water, but rather also the consequence of inhabiting the interior where they were relatively safe from coastal malaria and the plagues that ravaged the Aegean. [Also] houses, constructed of stone and clay mortar and without beds or furniture, were relatively hygienic. In such an environment, bacteria ...did not thrive."
"The survival of alleged pagan rituals is common throughout Greece."
"...in Icaria itself money for daily needs was almost superfluous. ...money rarely changed hands in ...a barter economy based on the exchange of sheep, goats, beehives, walnuts, and pithoi of wine and grain."
"The [18th century] ...Icarian...eminent mathematician, Ioannis Tzelipis [who emigrated to the much richer Greek island of Chios]...owned no land in Chios, and thus had to purchase his food."
"[From] ...1830 [to] ...1890 [the population of Izmir grew from 20,000 to 100,000]. The Islamic [residents] ....were in the minority [relative to the Greeks]."
"By 1890, there were [approximately]...six hundred Icarians within the Greek community of a hundred thousand permanently settled in Alexandria [Egypt]."
"[Despite being exposed to affluence/luxuries in Izmir, Egypt, or other parts of the Ottoman Empire] The Icarians [on the island of Icaria] remained attached to a simple lifestyle. ...they [even] took offense at anyone who possessed [fine] ... attire or furniture."
"No elite would emerge on [Icaria] ... to engage in conspicuous consumption for another century."
"...in 1911...Libyan nationalists, aspiring to drive the Turks out of Libya, inadvertently injured a few Italians. Italy accused the Porte of [neglecting] ...to protect the Italian population in the area and demanded territorial concessions. ...Italy declared war, [after] ....securing the neutrality of Britain, France and Russia. The Turkish armed forces proved to be ...ineffective. In the fall and winter of 1911, Italy occupied most of Libya and in the spring of 1912 [occupied] ...Rhodes. In April of 1912, an Italian fleet...began to occupy the Dodecanese for the purpose of preventing a Turkish fleet from sailing through the Aegean to reinforce Turkish positions in Libya. On May 4th, the Italians defeated a Turkish fleet outside Rhodes, and ...ended any further military action by Turkey. Italy [annexed] ...the Dodecanese for strategic purposes, to further its long-range imperial policy."
"Mussolini later claimed that Rhodes had...returned to its ancestral home, for the island had been an important part of the Roman Republic and Empire. In the 1930s Il Duce established an archaeological office on the island to unearth Roman antiquities to strengthen Italian claims to these regions."
"[Icarian immigrants to America] ...generally subscribed to the pro-Venizelos [liberal] National Herald, which was established in 1913, and scorned the Atlantis, the conservative and pro-royalist newspaper founded in 1894."
"After 1918 the radical Icarian-Americans subscribed to a Communist paper published in America, Phone tou Erghatou [Workers Voice] which in 1923 became Embros [Forward] ....Icarians often clashed with fellow Greek immigrants, particularly from the Peloponnese, who were generally royalists, and backers of Constantine I (king 1913-1917 and 1920-1922) who opposed Venizelos' liberal policies."
"Many ...of this first generation in America remained workers, and identified with the proletariat."
"Many worked in U.S. Steel, Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, and other such mills ... located between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio."
"Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Communist Party had agents operating in this area, and it recruited several Icarians."
"[From 1900-1940]...the island became [increasingly] ... dependent on the American community. ...Icaria fell into economic stagnation after it joined [Greece] ... in 1912. For its first [50 years] ...under the Greek flag, Icaria did not obtain major public works from Athens, or any help in the economic development of the island. On the other hand, the Greek government dispatched tax collectors."
"[By the mid-1920s, Icarian Venizelist politician and parliamentary representative Charalambos]...Pamphylis, likemany other Icarians, turned away from Venizelos and [drifted] ...toward radical politics [as it became clear that no Greek government - liberal or conservative, would do anything to help Icaria]."
"In 1926, [Pamphylis] ... delivered an inaugural address at the new high school in Aghios Kyrikos where he attacked the tyranny of capitalism and advocated a new system which would liberate the rural worker from poverty, provide for the sharing of communal wealth, and end the exploitation of the poor."
"...[Pamphylis] proposed Icarian wine, currants, and figs be exchanged in Europe for gold."
"Perhaps the most radical Icarian female was Maria Saranta Batouyios. She was virtually a homeless person who wandered the island with a bag full of seeds planting trees ... trying with modest success to regenerate the vanished Icarian forests. She urged the Icarians to build a reservoir to preserve the island's water, for the"sea does not need to be irrigated." ... She was a vegetarian, loved animals, and referred to wolves, as "my brothers." ... She angered the priests by going into churches to put out candles because they were wasting the labor of bees."
"...on August 15, 1940, ...Italy...torpedoed the Greek cruiser Helle.... A submarine sank the Helle while she lay anchored in the harbor of Tenos, and a second torpedo shattered a section of the port's mole, resulting in the death or wounding of a score of pilgrims who had assembled there to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, one of the most important religious holidays in Greece."
"...on October 28, 1940, [Mussolini] demanded that Greece relinquish certain Greek bases to Italy. Before Metaxas could reject the ultimatum, Il Duce declared war, and the Italians were invading Greece from Albania, which Italy had annexed in 1939."
"Ouzo made from the arbutus berry, koumara, had medicinal qualities and was so plentiful that in the fall of 1943 a quart was exchanged for a few packets of British army biscuits."
"Communists...believed that merchants created scarcity. They assumed they were ...war profiteers withholding goods for speculative purposes."
"In the first few months of 1942, three hundred thousand people starved to death in the capital [of Greece, Athens]."
"In 1964, when some Icarian Communists had regained their civil rights and ran for elective office, Communist candidates swept all local posts. In the first decades after the war, when given the opportunity, about 65 percent of ...Icarians consistently voted for either Communists or other left-wing candidates."
"...teachers who accepted positions in the new high school in Aghios Kyrikos in the late 1920s and the 1930s had a decided influence on their students' political outlook. The majority of these teachers were sympathetic to Marxism, and, although they did not actively [preach to] ...their students, they tended to open their eyes to new political ideas. It was widely believed by the mid-1930s that anyone who had a high-school education had acquired left-wing views."
"[Icarian communist guerrilas/andartes during the Greek civil war] Retreating to the mountain was a[n] ... act similar to the behavior of men in late Classical antiquity who fled military and tax obligations as the Roman Empire declined. In the eastern part of the Roman Empire the authorizes referred to this illegal act as anachoresis, and Icarians in the mid-twentieth century [resorted] ... to a type of anachoresis, withdrawing from a society that seemed to be breaking down."
"The war ... devastated Icaria. In 1946, agriculture production was down more than 50 percent from that of the prewar years, and only 10 percent of the people had money to purchase store goods."
"...only after the prisoners departed and the last guerrillas withdrew in 1955 [were] ...the Icarian-Americans ...able to [organize a]...program ...to revitalize Icaria...[and] provide relief on a large scale. "
"In 1955...$1,000 [was] approximately three-times the yearly salary of a worker in Greece..."
"Without ...[roads] or any other major public works...the Icarian economy lagged behind that of the rest of Greece, and its people [continued to embrace] ...left-wing politics."
"In 1974, prices [rapidly increased] ... in Greece. The term "inflation" became one of the taboo words prohibited in public [under the junta]. In July 1974, perhaps [trying] ...to cover economic problems and unite the country, the junta became involved in a conflict with Turkey over Cyprus, lost control of events, and fell from power."
"...increased anxiety about Turkey was connected to ...growing anti-Americanism. [Most] ...Icarians felt that [America] ...had forced Turkey as a pseudo-ally on Greece, was partially responsible for the Turkish occupation of about forty percent of Cyprus, and would not lift a finger to save Icaria from a Turkish invasion. The ...feeling in Icaria was that American policy had been too supportive of the junta, and that American "monopolies," never specifically identified, were preventing Greek industry from growing while draining the country of its natural resources..."
"[Athens] ...delivered a blow to tourism in the postwar period when it made Icaria a location for political prisoners."
"In the 1950s, ...Icaria [remained] ...isolated and primitive. There were about six motor vehicles on the island, and limited roads. Most areas [were] connected simply by inter-village lanes. People either walked or [rode on] ... a mule. Only Aghios Kyrikos could boast of electricity and plumbing. [Elsewhere] ... the inhabitants relied on well water and lanterns."
This thoroughly researched book by a scholar of classics, describes the rather sad history of the island since the fall of the Byzantine Empire - as it was subject to piracy, misrule, excessive taxation. Interestingly, the years of the latter Ottoman Empire weren't that bad - compared with the early years under Greek rule. Unfortunately, the island is not rich with respect to agriculture and so Icarians turned to converting forests into charcoal, which they would then load onto boats and sell all over Greece and even Alexandria, Egypt. The sad result of the business was the deforestation of the island and then the loss of topsoil. Livestock such as goats and sheep were once raised - but this too has disappeared as tourism replaced most of the former rural occupations. Areas of the hilly island were brought under cultivation by the construction of myriad small terraced fields - but these are uncultivated now.
Because the island was always so poor, many Icarians emigrated, especially to the US. The book traces the fortunes of Icarians in America - an interesting side-light. Like other Greeks who emigrated to the US, many worked to make enough money to return to Icaria and start a business or build a hotel etc. - while many others permanently stayed in the US. The book has a wealth of detail on the Icarian diaspora in the US. The early emigrants were active in trade unions and often were communists, just as they were in Icaria. However, later generations, as their level of affluence increased, became more right-wing or at least dropped their left-wing ideology.
This is an easy-to-read, well-researched, accessible history of a rather complex Greek island. It was once famous in antiquity for its spas, which were said to have healing properties. It had a nice temple near the shore - to Artemis. But centuries of deforestation, and then the constant threat of pirate raids, the heavy taxation, and so forth - led to a fearful, hidden population, living in very primitive conditions, camouflaged in the hills. People who tried to blend into the countryside to avoid the notice of pirates or bandits. People with nothing to begin with but who feared being robbed anyway in a land that was scarcely protected. Only when times were peaceful did the remaining residents venture back to the sea-side settlements.
Anyway, to return to the reason why I was interested in finding out more about this island: It is a Blue Zone island, and the reason for that is the large number of centenarians who live there. These people lived long enough to have grown up in extremely poor conditions - where hard work was the rule, and due to the isolation of the island, there was a limited food supply such that they had to mostly subsist on garden plots, locally grown food, olive oil, wine. I would say they likely had zero processed or industrially produced food, and likely rarely went to a restaurant - since many had no money at all and the economy was based on barter. They were dressed in rags, yet in their unheated homes, were able to withstand winter weather. The one thing these people all experienced was severe caloric restriction - in addition, they lived in a relatively small community where everyone was either related or knew each other. When the ideology of communism arrived in the early 20th C, the people - just about 100% of them - enthusiastically embraced it. Not too surprising, considering how poor they were and how they were likely already cooperating and sharing the little they had. The island was always famous for extending hospitality to anyone who came by, despite having so little. Probably the key reason these people live so long is the tightness of the community, the fact that the overwhelming majority were communists and hence there was little dissension in the community, and they were already sharing/helping each other long before the communist ideology arrived - that alone probably leads to longevity since doing good or helping others lowers inflammation since it releases endorphins. A more affluent lifestyle, with more leisure, less physical activity, more convenience, more obesity, more individualism, less community, we consider all that "progress" - what everyone strives for. The apotheosis of progress must be the universal adaptation of the cell phone - which seems to solve all problems, endlessly enlighten and amuse, and even perhaps replace the need to actually see people or have real-life experiences. This is of course the opposite of the way things once were, slower-paced, perhaps more formal in a way, but definitely less individualized, less atomized. Most Icarians didn't even have electricity up until at least the 1950s, and affluence only set in with the 1990s. Perhaps now it is becoming clear why Icaria is a Blue Zone and why the West - despite its affluence, progress, technology, riches - is mostly not a Blue Zone. It is the Western diet of junk food, or at least processed food, or vast quantities of any sort of food, it is the convenience of driving everywhere, everyone having cars, using elevators rather than walking up stairs, it is everything that is integral to the West, that leads to a shortened life-span relative to (once/poor) Icaria. It is the Icarians who lived decades in primitive, poverty-stricken conditions, but who had community - it is these people, even if they live in a newly-affluent island, who have made Icaria a Blue Zone. Certainly, Icaria - reading about it - provides food for thought. Anyone who is interested in finding out more about this fascinating Aegean island will want to read this book.
Here are some paraphrased/quotes from the book:
"According to...a Venetian historian of the 16th century, Icarians in 1481 petitioned the Knights [of St. John] for land in Rhodes. Wishing to [escape] ... Turkish pirates who were allegedly kidnapping their children ...they offered to surrender their freedom and live as serfs [in Rhodes]."
"...the Icarians from 1400 to 1800 seemed more [long-lived] ... than other Greeks... The well being of the population was not entirely the result of good air and water, but rather also the consequence of inhabiting the interior where they were relatively safe from coastal malaria and the plagues that ravaged the Aegean. [Also] houses, constructed of stone and clay mortar and without beds or furniture, were relatively hygienic. In such an environment, bacteria ...did not thrive."
"The survival of alleged pagan rituals is common throughout Greece."
"...in Icaria itself money for daily needs was almost superfluous. ...money rarely changed hands in ...a barter economy based on the exchange of sheep, goats, beehives, walnuts, and pithoi of wine and grain."
"The [18th century] ...Icarian...eminent mathematician, Ioannis Tzelipis [who emigrated to the much richer Greek island of Chios]...owned no land in Chios, and thus had to purchase his food."
"[From] ...1830 [to] ...1890 [the population of Izmir grew from 20,000 to 100,000]. The Islamic [residents] ....were in the minority [relative to the Greeks]."
"By 1890, there were [approximately]...six hundred Icarians within the Greek community of a hundred thousand permanently settled in Alexandria [Egypt]."
"[Despite being exposed to affluence/luxuries in Izmir, Egypt, or other parts of the Ottoman Empire] The Icarians [on the island of Icaria] remained attached to a simple lifestyle. ...they [even] took offense at anyone who possessed [fine] ... attire or furniture."
"No elite would emerge on [Icaria] ... to engage in conspicuous consumption for another century."
"...in 1911...Libyan nationalists, aspiring to drive the Turks out of Libya, inadvertently injured a few Italians. Italy accused the Porte of [neglecting] ...to protect the Italian population in the area and demanded territorial concessions. ...Italy declared war, [after] ....securing the neutrality of Britain, France and Russia. The Turkish armed forces proved to be ...ineffective. In the fall and winter of 1911, Italy occupied most of Libya and in the spring of 1912 [occupied] ...Rhodes. In April of 1912, an Italian fleet...began to occupy the Dodecanese for the purpose of preventing a Turkish fleet from sailing through the Aegean to reinforce Turkish positions in Libya. On May 4th, the Italians defeated a Turkish fleet outside Rhodes, and ...ended any further military action by Turkey. Italy [annexed] ...the Dodecanese for strategic purposes, to further its long-range imperial policy."
"Mussolini later claimed that Rhodes had...returned to its ancestral home, for the island had been an important part of the Roman Republic and Empire. In the 1930s Il Duce established an archaeological office on the island to unearth Roman antiquities to strengthen Italian claims to these regions."
"[Icarian immigrants to America] ...generally subscribed to the pro-Venizelos [liberal] National Herald, which was established in 1913, and scorned the Atlantis, the conservative and pro-royalist newspaper founded in 1894."
"After 1918 the radical Icarian-Americans subscribed to a Communist paper published in America, Phone tou Erghatou [Workers Voice] which in 1923 became Embros [Forward] ....Icarians often clashed with fellow Greek immigrants, particularly from the Peloponnese, who were generally royalists, and backers of Constantine I (king 1913-1917 and 1920-1922) who opposed Venizelos' liberal policies."
"Many ...of this first generation in America remained workers, and identified with the proletariat."
"Many worked in U.S. Steel, Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, and other such mills ... located between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio."
"Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Communist Party had agents operating in this area, and it recruited several Icarians."
"[From 1900-1940]...the island became [increasingly] ... dependent on the American community. ...Icaria fell into economic stagnation after it joined [Greece] ... in 1912. For its first [50 years] ...under the Greek flag, Icaria did not obtain major public works from Athens, or any help in the economic development of the island. On the other hand, the Greek government dispatched tax collectors."
"[By the mid-1920s, Icarian Venizelist politician and parliamentary representative Charalambos]...Pamphylis, likemany other Icarians, turned away from Venizelos and [drifted] ...toward radical politics [as it became clear that no Greek government - liberal or conservative, would do anything to help Icaria]."
"In 1926, [Pamphylis] ... delivered an inaugural address at the new high school in Aghios Kyrikos where he attacked the tyranny of capitalism and advocated a new system which would liberate the rural worker from poverty, provide for the sharing of communal wealth, and end the exploitation of the poor."
"...[Pamphylis] proposed Icarian wine, currants, and figs be exchanged in Europe for gold."
"Perhaps the most radical Icarian female was Maria Saranta Batouyios. She was virtually a homeless person who wandered the island with a bag full of seeds planting trees ... trying with modest success to regenerate the vanished Icarian forests. She urged the Icarians to build a reservoir to preserve the island's water, for the"sea does not need to be irrigated." ... She was a vegetarian, loved animals, and referred to wolves, as "my brothers." ... She angered the priests by going into churches to put out candles because they were wasting the labor of bees."
"...on August 15, 1940, ...Italy...torpedoed the Greek cruiser Helle.... A submarine sank the Helle while she lay anchored in the harbor of Tenos, and a second torpedo shattered a section of the port's mole, resulting in the death or wounding of a score of pilgrims who had assembled there to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, one of the most important religious holidays in Greece."
"...on October 28, 1940, [Mussolini] demanded that Greece relinquish certain Greek bases to Italy. Before Metaxas could reject the ultimatum, Il Duce declared war, and the Italians were invading Greece from Albania, which Italy had annexed in 1939."
"Ouzo made from the arbutus berry, koumara, had medicinal qualities and was so plentiful that in the fall of 1943 a quart was exchanged for a few packets of British army biscuits."
"Communists...believed that merchants created scarcity. They assumed they were ...war profiteers withholding goods for speculative purposes."
"In the first few months of 1942, three hundred thousand people starved to death in the capital [of Greece, Athens]."
"In 1964, when some Icarian Communists had regained their civil rights and ran for elective office, Communist candidates swept all local posts. In the first decades after the war, when given the opportunity, about 65 percent of ...Icarians consistently voted for either Communists or other left-wing candidates."
"...teachers who accepted positions in the new high school in Aghios Kyrikos in the late 1920s and the 1930s had a decided influence on their students' political outlook. The majority of these teachers were sympathetic to Marxism, and, although they did not actively [preach to] ...their students, they tended to open their eyes to new political ideas. It was widely believed by the mid-1930s that anyone who had a high-school education had acquired left-wing views."
"[Icarian communist guerrilas/andartes during the Greek civil war] Retreating to the mountain was a[n] ... act similar to the behavior of men in late Classical antiquity who fled military and tax obligations as the Roman Empire declined. In the eastern part of the Roman Empire the authorizes referred to this illegal act as anachoresis, and Icarians in the mid-twentieth century [resorted] ... to a type of anachoresis, withdrawing from a society that seemed to be breaking down."
"The war ... devastated Icaria. In 1946, agriculture production was down more than 50 percent from that of the prewar years, and only 10 percent of the people had money to purchase store goods."
"...only after the prisoners departed and the last guerrillas withdrew in 1955 [were] ...the Icarian-Americans ...able to [organize a]...program ...to revitalize Icaria...[and] provide relief on a large scale. "
"In 1955...$1,000 [was] approximately three-times the yearly salary of a worker in Greece..."
"Without ...[roads] or any other major public works...the Icarian economy lagged behind that of the rest of Greece, and its people [continued to embrace] ...left-wing politics."
"In 1974, prices [rapidly increased] ... in Greece. The term "inflation" became one of the taboo words prohibited in public [under the junta]. In July 1974, perhaps [trying] ...to cover economic problems and unite the country, the junta became involved in a conflict with Turkey over Cyprus, lost control of events, and fell from power."
"...increased anxiety about Turkey was connected to ...growing anti-Americanism. [Most] ...Icarians felt that [America] ...had forced Turkey as a pseudo-ally on Greece, was partially responsible for the Turkish occupation of about forty percent of Cyprus, and would not lift a finger to save Icaria from a Turkish invasion. The ...feeling in Icaria was that American policy had been too supportive of the junta, and that American "monopolies," never specifically identified, were preventing Greek industry from growing while draining the country of its natural resources..."
"[Athens] ...delivered a blow to tourism in the postwar period when it made Icaria a location for political prisoners."
"In the 1950s, ...Icaria [remained] ...isolated and primitive. There were about six motor vehicles on the island, and limited roads. Most areas [were] connected simply by inter-village lanes. People either walked or [rode on] ... a mule. Only Aghios Kyrikos could boast of electricity and plumbing. [Elsewhere] ... the inhabitants relied on well water and lanterns."
July 12, 2022
This is a book about the amazing recent history of a very unusual mountainous island in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The chapters dedicated to the 1940s are most dramatic!
I wish it was translated in Greek...
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Also praised in my friend's blog:
https://islgr.wordpress.com/2009/06/2...
I wish it was translated in Greek...
_______________________________
Also praised in my friend's blog:
https://islgr.wordpress.com/2009/06/2...
April 29, 2012
Interesting glimpse of the modern history of Ikaria
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews