... who happened to become Greece’s Finance Minister yesterday…

Parts 2 (50 mins) and 3 (50 mins) of the generalists' introduction to modern Greek history take us from 1920 to the present day. Part 1, 1820-1920, is here, and the two articles that have served as anchors for the conversation are here (Doxiadis on the historical roots of current economic structure) and here (Takis Pappas on the political history that led to crisis)

The rise of Syriza is a profound transformation for a radical left that is still traumatized by the defeat of Greek communism in the last century. This radical left now wants to break with its position of being eternally in the minority - a force dedicated to nothing but “resistance”. 

The New Democracy party will lead the government even though it is utterly clear that at least one in three of the voters who backed it think very little of the party but felt they had no other option. This is as inauspicious a beginning for a new government with a mountain range of challenges as one could have imagined.

In this hour-long informal conversation, Terence Mitchison provides the historian's background to the modern Greek state - from Venetian/Ottoman contestation to the Balkan wars of the 20th Century, the rise of Ataturk and the great population movements in the early 1920s

Greeks should not accept Germany's austerity measures but should remain in the euro, and ultimately seek a federal EU. This is the only way to end the sovereign debt crisis and restore EU trust, solidarity and collective responsibility.

It may be time to remind ourselves of the parallels between today's IMF-Merkel-Cameron package for Europe’s nations in the red, and the structural adjustment policies of the 1980's. Meanwhile, the centre has everything to gain from the misery of the periphery if only everyone can be persuaded to hold their nerve.