Volume 2 / Athens 2000 "In Memoriam: John Petropoulos (1929-1999)" by Alexander Kitroeff John Petropoulos died on May 6th 1999 in his office at Amherst College. He was on his way home carrying student papers to correct at the end of the semester. A private man, the author of a classic study of nineteenth century Greek politics chose a quiet life dedicated to his family, his teaching, reading and Iearning rather than pursuing the IimeIight of frequent public exposure. The classic work on nineteenth century Greece that established his reputation as an authority on modern Greek history is his "Politics and Statecraft in the Kingdom of Greece 1833-1843," published by Princeton University Press in 1968. It deals with the first phase of modern Greece's political history, from the time of the arrival of King Othon through the convocation of an eIected assembly that produced Greece's first constitution. The study incIudes a large section that provides the historical background to this period, the Greek Revolutionary War that lasted between 1821 and 1827 and the subsequent 1828-1832 period in which a government under Count Kapodistrias ruled briefty before it gave way to two years of political instability. The value in Petropoulos' analysis of both the background and the period he focuses on lies in the richness of his expIanation of how events were driven by the political interests of the major political actors. Those interests, he explains, were rooted in a broad range of competing local, regional, cultural and philosophical outlooks. In methodicaIIy recounting how those different outlooks clashed and synthesized, Petropoulos presented a wonderfuIIy textured and nuanced picture of early nineteenth century Greek society. This offered a refreshingly lively sense that earlier studies that were full of heroes and viIIains did not come close to recreating. The book is now over thirty years old but is stiII considered an indispensable aid in understanding the dynamics of revolutionary and post-revolutionary Greece. Proof is the steady stream of accolade-type citations of this book in the work of younger schofars, including many in Greece where the book appeared in a translation published by the National, Bank. The continued relevance of this study Iies not only in the remarkable depth and breadth of its study but also in its sober assessment of the consequences of the establishment of the modern Greek state. That event was manifestly a huge step forward for the Greeks, but it entailed sacrifices that the cheerleader-type of nationalist history writing tends to overlook. This is a conclusion that subsequent generations of historians embrace. But it took courage and intellectual integrity at the time for Petropoulos to lament at the end of the book, how the over-centralization of power crushed local initiatives, and how building a new state meant "disregarding much of what gave Greek life such vitality during the century prior to the revolution." The translation of "Politics and Statecraft" into Greek, and its warm reception by Greek historians make him one of the few Greek-American humanists and social scientists whose work was acknowledged and recognized in Greece. ?n 1970 he was elected an honorary member of the Society of Macedonian Studies. Petropoulos was born in Lewiston, Maine, on December 19, 1929, the son of Greek immigrants Anthony John and Anastasia Kargas Petropoulos. In the preface of "Politics and Statecraft" Petropoulos concluded a long list of acknowledgments with the following: "... ultimately, I owe my greatest debt of gratitude to my mother, who made the Greek tradition a living and vital thing, and to my father, who put it in broad perspective." Next to his academic interest in Greece, Petropoulos remained rooted in the Greek culture he was reared in; he was an accomplished pertormer of Greek dances and an active member of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity in Holyoke, Massachusetts. His wife, Electra Yankopoulou - with whom he had three children, Ansia, Stephanie and Anthony - is from the village of Vitane in the prefecture of Kastoria in Greece. Petropoulos attended Lewiston High School between 1943-47 and then went on to Yale College on a full scholarship and majored in history. He graduated in 1951 Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He pursued doctoral studies at Harvard University and as a graduate student he spent time in Athens, where he attended classes in modern Greek history. He also took time to study Turkish and to visitTurkey. His doctoral dissertation, on which his book was based, was completed and success fully submitted in 1963. Meanwhile, Petropoulos had joined the history department at Amherst College as an instructor in 1958. It would be at Amherst, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the United States, that Petropoulos would follow his academic career, becoming a full professor in 1973. Petropoulos taught courses in modern Greek, and Balkan and Middle Eastern History. His intellectual interests were broad. As a historian, he was keenly aware of the significance of studying the Near Eastern world. In his two-semester core course on the Middle East from 600 to 1300 AD, he emphasized the dynamism of Islam in that era and the important role played by the Turks and the Persians. At the time of his death he had just finished teaching a new course on the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, which he considered a major turning point in the history of the 20th century. The considerable demands of teaching and doing administrative work at a place like Amherst Iimited Petropoulos' publishing output, although he co-edited a volume entitled "Hellenism and the First Greek War of Liberation, 1821-1830" that was published by the lnstitute of Balkan Studies in Thessaloniki in 1976. He co-authored a book entitled "Foreign lnterference in Greek Politics" that was published by Pella Publishing in New York also in 1976. He also published a number of chapters in edited volumes, as well as articles and entries in Collier's Yearbook. Aside from a range of administrative activities at Amherst, Petropoulos was actively involved in promoting modern Greek studies in the United States, and he was on the advisory boards of several publications, including that of the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora. John Petropoulos' death is a huge loss to the historical profession and to the field of modern Greek studies. His "Politics and Statecraft in the Kingdom of Greece" remains a benchmark of exceIIence for scholars and students of modern Greece. Petropoulos turned his upbringing and knowledge of Greek culture into a tool with which to acquire and communicate a profound, intimate as well as critical understanding of Greek history, and to embrace the study of the history of neighboring peoples. His work represents the very best in the rich intellectual traditions of the Greek American community. Alexander Kitroeff teaches European History at Haverford College. Return to Top