Recent Greek history has been dominated by periods of progress and democracy interspersed by periods of dictatorship and civil conflict. This book explores how the attitude of ordinary Greek people society is still conditioned by the past. This book reveals a romantic Greece, with chapters on such eternally absorbing topics as language, landscape and culture. It explores how archaeology and tourism determine our view of contemporary Greece and looks at the potentially volatile mixture of minorities - the Albanians, the Vlachs, the Muslims of Thrace and the Macedonians. The author also deals with the complex patterns of Greek social and family relations, the shifting position of women, the influence of the Church, traditional agriculture, and the dynamic modern world of trade and business.