The Battle for Bodies, Hearts and Minds in Postwar Greece: Social Worker Charles Schermerhorn in Thessaloniki, 1946–1951

Charles Schermerhorn's memoir provides new and eye-opening source material about the epicenter of the early Cold War in northern Greece. It takes a child-centered and social-historical approach to controversial events, filling a void in our knowledge of the Greek Civil War and the late 1940s. Schermerhorn's achievement was to interact with a motley crew of actors, seeking common ground in improving living conditions for children and rural families.

Format: Hardback
Length: 266 pages
Publication date: 01 December 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The previously unpublished memoir of social worker Charles Schermerhorn offers a wealth of new and insightful information about the heart of the early Cold War: northern Greece. This book sheds light on this memoir to enhance the discussion surrounding the Greek Civil War and the late 1940s through the highly perceptive perspectives of a firsthand observer of the turmoil. Schermerhorn's writings are particularly powerful in their exploration of human agency in the face of adverse sociopolitical circumstances. His memoir adopts a child-centered and social-historical approach to controversial events, filling a significant gap in our understanding.

This book examines a single mid-twentieth-century crisis from multiple perspectives, as a moral, material, social, and institutional calamity that brought together a diverse group of actors, ranging from new humanitarian aid organizations to press agents, soldiers to destitute repeat-refugees, fledgling modern missionaries to foreign diplomats and economic strategists. Schermerhorn's remarkable achievement was his ability to engage with all of these actors, seeking common ground in the challenging task of improving living conditions for children and rural families. However, he also became aware of how easily foreign aid could be manipulated for political purposes and expediency.

Focusing on the Greek Civil War, this book will appeal to readers interested in the Cold War, the intense margins of proxy wars, and the devastating social consequences of conflicts occurring in hidden regions. The global history of humanitarian crises is a rapidly growing field, and Schermerhorn was the first to place Greek children and villagers, who left behind few sources, at the center of this urgent and ever-relevant debate.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032281742