Drawing inspiration from Athens and its cultural elite, Faubion here explores the meaning of modernity, finding it not in the singular character of "Western civilization" but instead in an increasingly diverse family of practices of reform.

Through a blend of lively detail and elegant narration, James Faubion immerses us in the cosmopolitan intellectual life of Athens, a centerless city of multiplicities and fragmentations, a city on the "margins of Europe" recovering from the repressive rule of a military junta. Drawing inspiration from Athens and its cultural elite, Faubion explores the meaning of modernity, finding it not in the singular character of "Western civilization" but instead in an increasingly diverse family of practices of reform.

Acknowledgments Pt. IReviewing Athens 1Model Improbabilities: Athens at First Sight 2Remembering and Remodeling: The Metaleptic Metropolis Pt. IIAnother Modernity 3Crossing the Threshold: Notes on Conflict at a Certain Greek Airport 4Sovereignty and Its Discontents 5"Everything Is Possible": Notes on the Greek Modern Pt. IIIAfter the Colonels: Projects of Self-Definition and Self-Formation Since 1974 6The Self Made: Developing a Postnational Character 7The Works of Margharita Karapanou: Literature as a Technology of Self-Formation 8Men Are Not Always What They Seem: From Sexual Modernization toward Sexual Modernity Epilogue: After the Present Notes Bibliography Index