History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece

History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece explores how the inhabitants of a Greek town face the devastating consequences of the worst economic crisis in living memory. Knight examines how the inhabitants draw on the past to contextualize their experiences and build strength that will enable them to overcome their suffering.

Author Daniel M. Knight: Daniel M. Knight is Addison Wheeler Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, UK.

“This account of local modes of understanding and explaining contemporary conditions of austerity and perpetual crisis after nearly three decades of prosperity is very timely. … a fascinating and timely account of creative accommodation to economic crisis.” (Margaret Kenna, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Vol. 34 (2), October, 2016)

“This book documents local perceptions of economic crisis in small-town Greece. … students of modern Greek economic and political history will find much to their liking in this book … . Also, the book gives food for thought to reconsider linear conceptualisations of time – the hallmark of European modernity.” (Joost Beuving, Social Anthropology, Vol. 24 (2), May, 2016)

“This is an ethnography of historical imaginaries, of the ways people con­ceptualize time in a polytemporal framework. It brings forward very help­ful remarks on the internalization of processes of structural adjustment imposed on contemporary Greeks. It can thus provide an entry point for appreciating the effects of neoliberal crises in the world today—especially underlining how the past is resuscitated in people’s struggles to accom­modate recent hardships and imagine a future beyond the bounds of cri­sis.” (Theodoros Rakopoulos, Anthropological Quarterley, Vol. 89 (3), 2016)

"The Greek crisis has largely been addressed as a drama of loan repayments and fiery public protests. In this evocative ethnography, Knight captures the sense of temporal vertigo induced in an ordinary local community as assumptions about continuing prosperity give way to the apprehension that unfortunate past times are returning. This book is must reading for anyone wishing to understand the social experience and human cost of financial crisis." - Charles Stewart, University College London, UK, and author of Dreaming and Historical Consciousness in Island Greece (2012)

"Knight's book is a masterful example of how history and anthropology together can explain the tensions of the present through the understanding of how memories of the past are recalled. Like Walter Benjamin's angel of history, being blown backwards towards the future while contemplating the ruins of the past, contemporary Greeks engage with the transformations in their political economic position while making sense of them in terms of past localized experiences. This is a timely and magnificent piece of scholarship." -Susana Narotzky, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Barcelona, Spain

"This is a dynamite book, the first ethnographic exploration of everyday life during the Greek Crisis; it is also an engaging meditation on rethinking memory and history, and the fascinating, multi-folded ties of present experience to images of the past. This is far from simply of scholarly interest; questions about what histories are relevant to the present are being debated as part of a struggle over the future of the European Union. Knight's book will undoubtedly enrich these debates. It is a timely contribution, accessibly written, which will make an excellent text for the classroom, as well as for wider discussion." - David E. Sutton, Professor of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, USA>