The Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University in New York City was honored for “the promotion of Greece, its long history and its culture to the international general public.”

The decision was announced last September, but Mazower chose to attend the ceremony in Athens, where the Greek edition of his new book “The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe” was launched at an event at the War Museum.

After the ceremony, he toured an exhibition of works by naif painter Theophilos at the Theocharakis Foundation.

This article was previously published at ekathimerini.com.