Narrating American History – Telling Greek American history: A dramatic contrast

In anticipation to the forthcoming Ergon initiative "Voices of the Other Greek America"

The recent documentary series The American Revolution is more than an engrossing telling of a foundational event for the nation. It represents a multilayered narrative which applies significant insights that US historiography has been contributing toward understanding the past. It tells the story from multiple perspectives––patriots, loyalists, farmer and artisan soldiers, the elite, men and women, native American Indians, enslaved and freed blacks. Rather than sanitizing the past, it places the ideals that motivated the revolution in its political and economic context. The envisioned liberty did not largely apply to the enslaved black people. It further connected with the goal of imperial expansion, the acquisition of property, which translated to land dispossession for Native American Indians. The narrative builds on this polyphony, including the perspective of a multitude of historians. It recognizes class divisions, noting ruefully that it was the lower socioeconomic farmers and artisans––not the sons of gentry–– who overwhelming fought and died for the cause.

As an immigrant who identifies with a host of US ideals, and as a Greek American educator who embraces the historiographical approach that The American Revolution applies, I find a sense of refreshing recognition in the documentary’s manner of telling the story. It narrates the past, well, historically.

At the same time, I feel overwhelming dismay. As a researcher who closely follows the prevailing Greek American tellings of its history and identity, I compare them with the mode of narrating history and identity in the documentary. The juxtaposition is dispiriting. In contrast to the American telling, prevailing Greek American narratives tend to idealize the group’s past and homogenize its present. Greek America emphasizes its sharing with American ideals. But in this case, it falls short, its popular narrations about its past are ahistorical.

It is the "Other Greek America" which has been responsible to that history, historicizing it. The other in Greek America deserves relocation as a central place - a direction to which the forthcoming Ergon initiative contributes.

Stay tuned

pbs.org

The American Revolution