Greeks and Macedonians are presently engaged in an often heated dispute involving competing claims to a single identity. Each group asserts that they, and they alone, have the right to identify themselves as Macedonians. The Greek government denies the existence of a Macedonian nation and insists that all Macedonians are Greeks, while Macedonians vehemently assert their existence as a unique people. Here Loring Danforth examines the Macedonian conflict in light of contemporary theoretical work on ethnic nationalism, the construction of national identities and cultures, the invention of tradition, and the role of the state in the process of building a nation. The conflict is set in the broader context of Balkan history and in the more narrow context of the recent disintegration of Yugoslavia. Danforth focuses on the transnational dimension of the "global cultural war" taking place between Greeks and Macedonians both in the Balkans and in the diaspora. He analyzes two issues in particular: the struggle for human rights of the Macedonian minority in northern Greece and the campaign for international recognition of the newly independent Republic of Macedonia. The book concludes with a detailed analysis of the construction of identity at an individual level among immigrants from northern Greece who have settled in Australia, where multiculturalism is an official policy. People from the same villages, members of the same families, living in the northern suburbs of Melbourne have adopted different national identities.

In this study of Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, the author examines how their participation in the conflict, and the attempts by other groups to manipulate them, gave rise to modern issues that continue to affect politics in the region today. The Macedonian Question has confounded academics, politicians and the people of the Balkans since the nineteenth century. While the countries have resolved the territorial component of the Macedonian Question, the critical and confusing question surrounding the ethnic and linguistic identity of the people of the region continues to be the source of international debate. Part of the reason for this confusion is because the history of the Macedonian Question is shrouded in nationalist polemics. The role of the Macedonian Slavs involvement in the Greek Civil War is particularly contentious and embedded in nationalist polemics, which has impacted academic inquiry. This book argues that the preponderance of Macedonian Slavs within the communist forces during the Greek Civil War influenced the actions of all the major actors involved, and is a significant factor in shaping the modern Macedonian national identity.

Readable full-length narrative of the Third Macedonian War, which effectively made Rome an almost global power beyond compare.

“Pekar has proven that comics can address the ambiguities of daily living, that like the finest fiction, they can hold a mirror up to life.” –The New York Times For years Heather Roberson, a passionate peace activist, has argued that war can always be avoided. But she has repeatedly faced counterarguments that fighting is an inescapable consequence of world conflicts. Indeed, Heather finds proving her point to be a little tricky without examples to bolster her case. So she does something a little crazy: She sets out for far-off Macedonia, a landlocked country north of Greece and west of Bulgaria, to explore a region that has edged–repeatedly–close to the brink of violence, only to refrain. In the process–and as vividly portrayed by the talented duo of Harvey Pekar and Ed Piskor–Heather is tangled in red tape, ripped off by cabdrivers and hotel clerks, hit on by creepy guys, secretly photographed, and mistaken for a spy. She also creates unlikely friendships, learns that getting lost means seeing something new, and makes some startling discoveries. War is hell and peace is difficult–but conflict is always necessary. “Harvey Pekar wrestles the kind of things most comic book heroes wouldn’t touch with a laser blaster.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer “A visit with Harvey Pekar . . . will cause you to reexamine your own life . . . just as the greatest literature will.” –The Austin Chronicle “Pekar lets all of life flood into his panels: the humdrum and the heroic, the gritty and the grand.” –The New York Times Book Review

Many important issues surrounding Alexander the Great's conquest have captured the interest of scholars and general readers since antiquity. This book acquaints us with these issues and their current interpretations, and opens up new directions of investigation as it confronts them. It covers a broad range of topics: the ancients' representations of the king in literature and art; Alexander's relations with Greeks, Macedonians, and the peoples of Asia; the military, political, sociological, and cultural aspects of his campaigns; the exploitation of his story by ancient philosophers to argue a moral point and by modern communities to affirm or contest ethnic and national identities. This volume will be of interest to scholars and nonspecialists alike and serve as a standard reference work for years to come.

At the height of the Greek Civil War in 1948, 38,000 children were evacuated from their homes in the mountains of northern Greece and relocated to orphanages and children's homes. This book analyses the evacuation, which remains a controversial issue within Greek society.

For nearly 130 years, the Greeks, the Bulgarians, and the Yugoslavs have fought over the question of who has the historical and demographic rights to use the name "Macedonia." Historically the land of Philip II and Alexander the Great, Aristotle, Mount Olympus and the Greek gods, Macedonia boasts an impressive cultural heritage that the Greeks have claimed as their own. In 1991, a state resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia proclaimed itself Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), angering the Greeks and adding fuel to the persistent dispute. This book argues the Macedonian question from a Greek perspective. It questions FYROM's right to the Macedonian name, arguing that Greece possesses the historical, cultural, linguistic, anthropological and demographic ties to the legacy of Alexander. Research examines the origins of the dispute between Hellenism and Bulgarism, the Balkans wars, the world wars and the rise of Tito's communism in Yugoslavia. The book also shows, step by step, the misconceptions about the legacy of Macedonia as promulgated by international communism, and carefully analyzes communism's role as the main protagonist in the formation of the new state and as a pivotal source fomenting and fueling the Greek Civil War. Cover to cover, it traces the conflict's change from an initial struggle between Hellenism and Bulgarism to the present dispute between Athens and Skopje.