“The personal motivation to study Hermoupolis was strengthened by the fascination of creating a city from scratch in the crucible of the Greek Revolution and its indeed impressive development: it became one of the most important cities of the Greek state in the 19th century and simultaneously a significant transit center of international trade between East and West, whose reach was felt on both sides of the Aegean and generally in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It was clear that the fortunes of the city during its peak were managed by a bourgeois class that maintained, due to its economic power, considerable independence from the central authority and was able to imprint its views on the character of the settlement as well as in many aspects of social life.

The impression that Hermoupolis made on young King George I during his first visit to it – who said it reminded him of Liverpool – provided me with the impetus for the first part of the book’s subtitle.

Another motivation, perhaps the most appealing, was to explore how the people of Hermoupolis experienced the decline of their city from the last decades of the 19th century. What resistances and alternatives did they propose, what compensations did they seek to somewhat maintain the old balances, not just economic ones.

Here stands out the bold decision of some capitalists to establish large textile manufacturing units at the turn of the century, to employ hundreds of unemployed or underemployed men and a multitude of women. Thus, a real cotton city was created, whose name was given to the second part of the book’s subtitle. With this new economic orientation, the city was able to maintain a significant position among the major Greek provincial cities.

And here the arrival of several thousand refugees from Asia Minor bolstered the population of the society and allowed for various complementarities. However, from the beginning of the 1930s, the city would also experience this great economic crisis. During the Occupation, it would lose about 1/3 of its population to starvation, a mortality rate proportionally higher than that of Athens.

The post-war reality would be painful. The wounds of foreign occupation would heal with difficulty, while new ones would be added due to the Civil War, the end of which also marks the end of the narrative.” [From the Preface of the book]