The Interpreters

'This important new study shows the connections between the national question in southeastern Europe and British imperialism. An intellectual history of the development of liberal views on the minority question, it helps explain why internationalism took the form that it did after the First World War and how that mattered to both Britain and southeastern Europe.' Michelle Tusan, President, North American Conference on British Studies

'The interpreters offers a fascinating group portrait of the individuals who shaped Western perception of southeastern Europe. With a sharp eye and keen sense for historical convergence, Giannakopoulos shows how these nineteenth-century British intellectuals formed and changed their own views of the region through contact with its people and artifacts, as well as through their often-intimate personal relationships with one another, and in relation to the geopolitical aspirations and fantasies of Great Britain.' Holly Case, Professor of History, Brown University
This book offers a new interpretation of the cultural and intellectual exchanges between Britain and southeastern Europe in the period between 1870-1930. It tells the story of a group of scholars - the interpreters - caught in an age of clashing nationalisms and internationalisms. The volume records their search for political order in moments of crisis, and highlights their commitment to imperial 'solutions' in a world spinning into violence and ethnic contention. The interpreters is also about how these scholars connected national communities in the hot spots of southeastern Europe and the Balkans with Britain's policy makers, and how they framed national questions as international problems requiring imperial solutions.
Making uses of sources from state archives, individual paper collections, newspapers and magazines across Britain and southeastern Europe, the book connects the study of the British empire with the politics of central and southeastern Europe.