A moving and hopeful piece, against the mood of the times, by a leading historian of modern Greece (and the Balkans)

NYT, Mark Mazower, "Democracy's Cradle, Rocking the World":

And now today, after the euphoria of the '90s has faded and a new modesty sets in among the Europeans, it falls again to Greece to challenge the mandarins of the European Union and to ask what lies ahead for the continent. The European Union was supposed to shore up a fragmented Europe, to consolidate its democratic potential and to transform the continent into a force capable of competing on the global stage. It is perhaps fitting that one of Europe's oldest and most democratic nation-states should be on the new front line, throwing all these achievements into question. For we are all small powers now, and once again Greece is in the forefront of the fight for the future.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake