Από την Αυστρία στις ΗΠΑ: Οι Έλληνες και τα άλλα έθνη στις εφημερίδες της νεολαίας (1859-1865)

Abstract

This study looks at the depictions of different nations in the press of the “Golden Youth”, the vanguard of an antidynastic generation that was shaped during the late Ottonian period. The views of the “Golden Youth” were represented by two newspapers: Το Μέλλον της Πατρίδος and H Νέα Γενεά. In their opinion, nations are divided into “free” and “not free”, based on their compliance with liberal norms and the “principle of ethnicities”, meaning the political emancipation of all nations. Besides the Great Powers that were omnipresent in the Greek public sphere during the first post-revolutionary years, more nations have come to the center of attention. Different issues are taken into consideration, from the slavery of the African-Americans to the wretchedness of the proletariat in Western Europe. It is worth noting that the Youth did not disagree in essence with its alleged ideological opponents. Those opponents simply rejected the “revolutionary way” that the Youth considered to be an end in itself. The Youth’s idols, (Garibaldi, Washington, or King Leopold of Belgium), were equally admired by all those who were supporting constitutionalism,
individual and political liberties and the so called “principle of ethnicities” – basically everyone interested in politics at the time.
Therefore, the analysis that can be found in the Youth’s newspapers, concerning different nations and their place in the scale of human progress, may be considered representative of a whole era.