Christos Chatziyiovsef is a historian. He was born in 1947 in Athens. He studied law, political economy, and history in Athens, Heidelberg, and Paris, worked for a time in the last two cities, and since 1983 he has settled in Rethymno, where he lives and works to this day.

He taught modern and contemporary history (1983–2014) in the Department of History and Archaeology of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Crete, of which he has been an emeritus professor since 2015. Always active and energetic, he was director (2010–2016) at the Institute of Mediterranean Studies of the Foundation for Research and Technology, participates in numerous scientific organizations for historical and, more generally, humanities studies in Greece and abroad, while directing the series “History and Society” of the University Press of Crete.

This volume was written by thirty-four authors and published by the University Press of Crete in his honor. Christos Chatziyiovsef has succeeded, through his intellect, writing, teaching, and presence in the academic and broader public sphere, in becoming for many—and certainly for the authors of this volume—a teacher, collaborator, colleague, and friend, regardless of the starting point of the individual interpersonal relationships.

The volume gathers contributions from the fields of history, art history, archaeology, law, and economics; all fields that find their connection and references in the work and interests of the honoree. The texts are organized into three parts based on their content.

The first part includes studies that focus on institutions, ideologies, and policies and refer to various historical periods ranging from the 18th to the 21st century. The second part collects texts that deal with politics in relation to the economy and society and presents a corresponding chronological variety. The third part contains contributions on historiography and the theoretical aspects of the historian's work and rightly presents the greatest divergences in the chronological focus of the texts, which shifts from early antiquity to the modern period.

The boundaries between the three parts are not absolutely watertight. This osmosis observed in the structure of the book reflects the breadth, variety, and multiple connections that characterize the work and presence of Christos Chatziyiovsef in the field of historical studies.