Agricultural History Review, Volume 61 Part 1 (2013), p. 181

alexandria-publ.gr). Since the early twentieth century, perhaps even earlier, a category of specialist intellectuals (agriculturists, economists, sociologists et al.) formed in Greece, who systematically fostered and promoted the history of Greek economic thought, particularly during the inter-war period, laying special emphasis on the history and evolution of the agricultural sector and rural world. After all, the agricultural sector occupied the greatest part of productive activities and employed more than 60 per cent of the economically active population of the country almost until the beginning of the 1960s.

Socratis Petmezas’ work can be placed among this remarkable tradition, which he continues and broadens with his books and various publications. His new book comprises a concise panorama, one could say, of the Greek rural economy from the early twentieth century to the 1970s and is, as always, scientifically interesting and bibliographically exhaustive. Petmezas admits from the very beginning that one of his intentions was to expand both thematically and chronologically the 20-year interwar period, which forms the main thematic axis of the book, in order to include changes and processes which preceded and followed it. His ulterior purpose was to offer a holistic view, a total narration and interpretation of the evolution of the Greek rural economy and society at least from the beginnings of the twentieth century to the first post-war decades.

Consequently, his treatise expands to various fields and levels (economic, demographic, social, and institutional). The guiding force in this extended periodization has been the use of available statistical data and the thorough processing of various quantitative data. The book consists of six parts, while the data included in the almost exhaustive charts and tens of figures are extremely informative and rich. Hence, one of the greatest virtues of the book is the quantification and visualization of narrative based on dozens of charts, maps and diagrams which demonstrate systematic research and the indexing of many sources. A significant part of these sources derives from the official data of the Greek statistical service, as well as from articles and studies published in several Greek agricultural or agronomical journals from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s. Much of this primary evidence, which has remained (and to a great extent still remains) unexploited, requires further elaboration and refining in order to become usable and to contribute to the extraction of safer conclusions.

Therefore, the factual evidence it offers is extremely rich and original and it is accompanied by equally apposite comments and interpretive implications. However, some of them are somewhat precocious and/ or untenable, which is logical as well as predictable in such an extensive treatise both in terms of space and time. Moreover, such slips are due to the lack of organized records and, consequently, of relevant monographs. This is because the field of rural history has not yet formed into an autonomous scientific discipline in Greece, despite the predominantly agricultural character of the country, and the growth of agrarian studies since the 1960s.

In brief, one could say that the book is an interesting review of the history of rural economy from the era of economic liberalism and extroversion of the early twentieth century to the inter-war period, which is characterized by intense state interventionism and the preference for self-sufficiency, as in most European countries. From there the book turns to the structural changes of the first post-war decades which led to the change of the production model and the elimination of the agricultural character of rural areas. The basic viewpoint of the writer and the conclusion of the essay is that the Greek inter-war period, as regards the rural society and economy, is institutionally and historically integrated in the post-war years, while the interwar agrarian reform was a missed opportunity, despite individual changes and progress. As he mentions, only during the post-war period, specifically within the brief period of one generation (c.1955–85), did the Greek rural areas assimilate the experience of two agrarian revolutions and the passage to the modern, completely capitalist agriculture.

In short, the book undoubtedly possesses significant qualities. Having dealt with an extremely extended and critical period of Greek rural (and not only rural) history, in a unique way it highlights the attempt to modernize this sector during the inter-war period, as well as the attempts to remove impasses bequeathed to the post-war period by the inter-war period. Furthermore, an equally important contribution of the book is the fact that from its pages a Greece of toil and labour, capable of surviving wars, crises and catastrophes, arises.