Xeni Baloti’s book – essential for understanding both French and Greek history – summarizes two important aspects: the story of a “child” of the French Revolution and the completion of the Greek Revolution in 1828-1829 by the French expeditionary force.
It is first and foremost the story of a volunteer soldier who rose to the rank of general and special envoy on diplomatic missions, crossing all the different regimes of France at the time: democracy, directorate, consulate, empire and restoration. Maison, one of the most interesting military figures of the 19th century in Europe as a whole, evolved into an equal interlocutor of Napoleon, Louis, Charles, Philip, Metternich and Tsar Nicholas.
It is also the history of Greece under Kapodistrias and his collaboration with the French mission for the liberation of the Morea.
This book, an edited version of Xenia Baloti’s doctoral thesis, follows the paths and movements of the protagonists of a turbulent era through administrative documents and correspondence.