In The Greek Fire, Maureen Connors Santelli explores the early global influence of the United States through its fascination with the Greek Revolution of the 1820s and 1830s. The American philhellenic movement pushed US interests into the eastern Mediterranean, shaping domestic conversations on freedom and reform. Believing Greece to be the birthplace of American democracy, Americans across the country raised funds, sent aid, and rallied against Turkish oppression. Northerners and southerners alike supported the Greek cause, with women-led philanthropic and missionary groups promoting humanitarianism, education reform, and evangelism. Despite public pressure, the US government remained neutral, prioritizing commercial ties with the Ottoman Empire over intervention. The Greek Fire reassesses America's role in the Greek Revolution, revealing how early foreign engagements shaped national identity and diplomacy. Santelli highlights how these debates helped define what it meant to be an emerging global power in the nineteenth century.
Maureen Connors Santelli is a Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College.
Introduction: The Spark of the Greek Fire 1. Americans, Greeks, and Ottomans Before 1821 2. European Philhellenism Crosses the Atlantic 3. Philhellenism Joins with American Benevolence 4. Philhellenes Clash with American Commerce 5. Abolitionism, Reform, and Philhellenic Rhetoric Conclusion: The Legacy of American Philhellenism
Highly recommended. (Choice) It is a testament to the range of The Greek Fire that Santelli extends her analysis beyond the transnational story of the reception of the Greek rebellion in America to consider the trans-imperial and geopolitical dimensions of this episode. Santelli, in particular, should be applauded for linking the reception of the Greek revolution in the United States to its quest for commercial expansion in the Near East. (Journal of the Early Republic) Santelli illuminates American romantic kinship with the Greeks, given Hellenic themes in American education, architecture, and literature, and news of the British poet Lord Byron's martyrdom in the Greek cause; it mattered that he died in Missolonghi, not Paris or Warsaw. (The Journal of American History) One of the many merits of this book is that it places the movement of Philhellenism within its historical coordinates while adding the perspective of time. In particular, it examines Philhellenism's legacy during the nineteenth century as it pertains, in the American context, to calls for emancipation and arguments for Americans' moral responsibility to extend their own freedoms to faraway strangers in foreign lands. (Journal of Modern Greek Studies) The focus on American society necessitated reliance primarily on published sources such as newspapers, books, and pamphlets, within which Santelli has found an impressive archive of discussion of Greece. It is to be hoped that her work will prompt further research on American interaction with Greece. (H-Net (H-Nationalism))
