"Papadogiannis offers an impressive panorama of radicalized youth cultures of the Left in post-authoritarian Greece. He manages to convey both the organizational outlook of this dense microcosm and the lived experience of the people at the time, historicizing masterfully this transitional moment in which young 'subjects in motion' acted as a metaphor for change . . . the book uncovers the social, cultural, and political layers behind the resilience of collective action in post-1974 Greece." · Kostis Kornetis, New York University
"An original, well-researched book that provides a fresh perspective on youth and leisure in contemporary history by looking at Greece in the 1970s." · Frank Trentmann, Birkbeck College, University of London
During the 1970s, left-wing youth militancy in Greece intensified, especially after the collapse of the military dictatorship in 1974. This is the first study of the impact of that political activism on the leisure pursuits and sexual behavior of Greek youth, analyzing the cultural politics of left-wing organizations alongside the actual practices of their members. Through an examination of Maoists, Socialists, Euro-Communists, and pro-Soviet groups, it demonstrates that left-wing youth in Greece collaborated closely with comrades from both Western and Eastern European countries in developing their political stances. Moreover, young left-wingers in Greece appropriated American cultural products while simultaneously modeling some of their leisure and sexual practices on Soviet society. Still, despite being heavily influenced by cultures outside Greece, left-wing youth played a major role in the reinvention of a Greek "popular tradition." This book critically interrogates the notion of "sexual revolution" by shedding light on the contradictory sexual transformations in Greece to which young left-wingers contributed.
Nikolaos Papadogiannis is Teaching Fellow at the University of St Andrews School of History. He obtained his Ph.D. in History from the University of Cambridge in 2010, and has published articles in international journals such as European History Quarterly, Contemporary European History, European Review, and the Journal of Modern Greek Studies.