Mark Mazower's wonderful new book recreates one of the most unlikely and significant events in the story of modern Europe. In the face of near impossible odds, the people of Greece rose up against Sultan Mahmud II and took on the might of the imperial Ottoman armed forces, its Turkish cavalrymen, Albanian foot soldiers and the fearsome Egyptians. Despite the most terrible disasters, they held on until military intervention by Russia, France and Britain finally secured the kingdom of Greece.