Thomas W. Gallant is professor of Greek history at the University of Florida. He is the author of numerous books, including Modern Greece.
“This book is an extraordinary piece of historical and
anthropological scholarship. This kind of social history, based on
primary sources that reveal significant truths about the activities
of the peasantry and other working-class people, informed by
historical and anthropological perspectives, and focusing on the
colonial context, is typical of the current trend in hybrid
scholarship. Experiencing Dominion represents one of the finest
examples of this innovative approach to historical subject matter.”
—Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"This lively and intriguing book uses the specific and in many ways
atypical example of British colonial rule over the Ionian islands
to make a series of valuable interventions into a number of related
fields of historical and post-colonial enquiry. For the specialist
in Mediterranean history or sociology the material from the Greek
provincial archives will be of undoubted value.... For the
non-specialist or the reader more generally concerned with
imperialism and colonialism, the book provides thought-provoking
insights into the often unexpected results of imperial initiatives.
Gallant knows his material well and handles it with
panache."—Mediterranean Historical Review
“… an empirically rich and theoretically ambitious study of British
rule in the Greek Ionian Islands between the 1810s and 1860s,
offers many insights into the negotiations of colonialism from both
sides of the relationship. Written in an engaging style and attuned
to theory, Experiencing Dominion should appeal to scholars and
students interested in modern British and Greek history …” —Journal
of Modern History
“Experiencing Dominion is an evenhanded and highly recommended
study of historical events offering a wealth of thoughtful insights
into the evolution of Greek and Ionian society.” —Midwest Book
Review
“Thomas Gallant, Heritage Professor of Hellenic Studies at York
University, Toronto, can always be counted on to produce
scholarship that is both insightful and elegantly written. In his
latest offering, Experiencing Dominion, he has outdone himself by
focusing on a topic so interesting, and so interestingly conceived,
that even in far clumsier hands it would have made for fascinating
reading. In Gallant’s it is a treat.” —HISTORY: Reviews of New
Books
“The great contribution of Thomas W. Gallant’s book is to tell the
story largely from the perspective of the islanders, using the
local Greek sources as well as the British ones.” —International
History Review
“The author himself has a keen eye for ethnographic detail and the
weaving of historical data with contemporary ethnographic studies
has produced a lively account of people and events little known,
long forgotten, but nonetheless important in our understanding of
colonialism. Gallant’s book is a fine example of the recent
dialogue between cultural history and historical ethnography. [I]t
makes an important contribution to the study of colonialism by
highlighting an almost forgotten but important aspect of it that
awaits theorization—the European colonization of the margins of
Europe." —Nations and Nationalism
“[J]udging by Thomas W. Gallant’s engaging and well-researched
study, a closer look at this episode of British dominion
contributes considerably to our understanding of imperial power,
cross-cultural encounters and postcolonial perspectives. Making
detailed use of a wealth of archival information Gallant vividly
reconstructs nineteenth-century lonian life. ...Experiencing
Dominion marks a detailed contribution to both Greek and British
history and forcefully contributes to debates about postcolonial
theoretical approaches.” —Journal of Social History
“...with insightful analyses of the anthropological and historical
implications of various events, Gallant brings to life the society
and culture on the islands during the five decades of British rule
and sheds important light on intercultural relations during this
colonial period. ...valuable addition(s) to the literature of
modern Greek history and... deserve(s) a wide audience.” —Journal
of Modern Greek Studies
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