Events Calendar – British School at Athens
Upper House Seminar
Lady Marina Marks in conversation with Bruce Clark, “The Uses of Oppression: The Ottoman Empire through its Greek Newspapers, 1830–1862”
Lady Marks and Bruce Clark will discuss the research for her recently published book The Uses of Oppression: The Ottoman Empire through its Greek Newspapers, 1830–1862 (Harvard University Press, 2024).
Abstract: During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, a generation of Ottoman Greeks was caught up in radical social and political changes, including the period of reforms known as Tanzimat. The Ottoman Greek press was both a product and an agent of these changes. The Uses of Oppression follows the development of the Ottoman Greek press from its birth in 1830 until 1862, employing the vivid reflections of its editors, correspondents, advertisers, commentators, and readers as a lens through which to view the everyday lives of this generation of Ottoman Greeks—their social aspirations, their reactions to political events, their reception of Western-style norms, and other contemporary issues.
“The invaluable research of Marina Sakali, Lady Marks, using a remarkable array of Ottoman Greek newspapers as her principle source, throws light on a period of the late Ottoman Empire when creativity, optimism, and a yearning for progress on all fronts was surging among the Ottoman Greeks, despite their inferior civic status. The fact that this community came to a bloody end, a century ago, lends poignancy to the story, and makes it doubly important to study the written evidence in a cool and detached way.” – Bruce Clark, author of Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey
When: 17 March, 2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm EET
Where: – –