The Greek War of Independence is a masterful work?the first comprehensive study in thirty years?of one of the most heroic and bloody struggles for independence any people has ever waged. This was the revolution of the Romantic Age, inspiring painters, poets, and patriots the world over, fired as much by Lord Byron?s ringing words and Delacroix's brilliant paintings as by Greece's seemingly hopeless plight. For nearly four hundred years the Ottoman Turks governed Greece, subjecting the country to crushing and arbitrary tax burdens and its peasants to serfdom; the glories of the ancient past were gone, and under Turkish rule Greece was poor and backward. But inspired by the examples of the American and French revolutions, Napoleon's victories, and the Latin American wars of liberation, the Greek people rose up against their Turkish masters in 1821. For twelve brutal years, a time of terrible violence and bloody massacre, the Greeks and the foreign volunteers who flocked to their cause fought until independence was won in 1833.

Originally published: Woodstock, N.Y. : Overlook Press, 2001. Includes maps of: Roumeli, or Greece North of the Gulf of Corinth; Morea of Peloponnese; Alexander Ipsilantis in Moldavia and Wallachia, 1821; Chios; Mesolongi and its Lagoon; Siege of Athens, 1826-1827.

Revolution and the Great Church -- Resentment and regeneration -- Two prophets of revolution -- The Philikí Etería -- Ali Pasha -- Revolt along the Danube -- Doubts and deliberations in the south -- The storm breaks -- The land war -- The war at sea -- The Turkish reaction -- The capture of Tripolis -- Forming a government -- The eyes of the world on Greece -- The Philhellenes in action -- Chios -- The expedition of Dramali -- The Greeks divided -- Byron's road to Greece -- Byron at Mesolongi -- Gold from London -- Civil War in Greece -- Ibrahim in the Peloponnese -- The involvement of the Powers -- Odysseus and Trelawny -- The fall of Mesolongi -- The second English loan -- Desperate remedies -- Athens, the last Ottoman success -- The Treaty of London and the Admiral's instructions -- Navarino -- Kapodhístrias, a border, and a king.