Do National Histories Affect National Identities? Ancient Athens, Byzantium and Greece Today, a Survey Experiment

ABSTRACT Do national histories affect national identities? Most nations have complex and multiple pasts. Nationalist historians can smooth over discontinuities by either merging them into an unbroken national narrative or by skipping over pasts that do not fit the story. This study explores the Greek case: the ‘Helleno‐Christian’ synthesis dominant since the 1850s. Do distinct ancient Greek and Byzantine pasts persist in Greece today, differentially affecting co‐existing Democratic and Christian Greek national identities in the present? Or have these pasts fused into one? In a survey experiment, we found that Greeks randomly assigned to read an imitation Wikipedia entry about Ancient Greece (vs. Byzantium) were more likely to endorse a Democratic Greek national identity in the present, while pre‐existing progressive Left‐to‐conservative Right ideologies moderated the impact of the two histories on a Christian Greek national identity today. The mutual constitution of the past and present of nations is then further discussed.