All of these images bring to mind the traditional icons of Greece, the cradle of Western Civilization. But what do we know of modern Greece? The answer to that question and more can be found in Culture and Customs of Greece, a new book by Prof. Artemis Leontis, published recently by Greenwood Press. This extensive volume examines topics such as religion, social customs, leisure life, festivals, language, literature, performing arts, media, and modern art and architecture, among many other topics. Woven into the text are beautiful and accurate vignettes of Greek life, helping to illustrate how it is people live. A crossroads between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Greece is fighting to hold on to the culture of yesterday, while still looking toward modernity.

According to Dr. Leontis, a third generation American Greek and an Associate Professor of Modern Greek at the University of Michigan, “this is a book for a general educated readership, from the high school student and college undergraduate to the Greek American or non Greek for whom Greece's present-day reality holds many unanswered mysteries, for example: how does Athens manage to clear its congested streets in its many neighborhoods for weekly farmers' markets, why do so many Greeks write poetry, what are rebetika, why do newspapers hang like laundry on "periptera" (kiosks), why do Greeks seem to argue all the time, how religious are Greeks, and what is holding Greek society together in the present world, when so many forces are conspiring to pull people apart?”

Besides, there is a very practical aspect from an educator’s point of view. “There is no current book in English exploring contemporary Greek culture in its many dimensions,” notes Leontis. “For years I have had not textbook for my course on modern Greek culture, and I have not had a book to recommend for the educated reader.”