Peoples do not only have heroes; they also have scoundrels. In the history of a place, not only heroes belong, but also the scoundrels who also make history. In any case, the history of a place is not just a series of positive events. After all, in a dialectical view of things, if there was no negation, there would be no affirmation either.

This concise history of Greece from 1830 to 1974, written to be primarily an enjoyable read, focuses more on the negative rather than the positive events of our history. It gives greater importance to the traitors, the collaborators of all periods, and the opportunists who have never been absent, rather than to those who sincerely cared for this unfortunate place, which continues to suffer from a lack of historical honesty.

The orators of the two national anniversaries, which perhaps exist because one is not enough to make us understand that we are Greeks, will find nothing useful for them in this book. However, teachers could well use it as an aid and as a supplement to the officially censored school histories, which aim more at stupefying rather than awakening Greek children, who, being steeped from a tender age in institutionalized historical lies, it would be unreasonable to expect to become responsible and honest citizens of a state full of swindlers.

This book loves Greece. And that is why it does not flatter it. It calls a spade a spade and traitors traitors, not national heroes. It could be titled "Negative History of Modern Greece," if negation were not necessary for affirmation. Therefore, this book aims for affirmation through negation, following the suggestion of Theodor Adorno.