The history of Patras and Achaia has been written as if there was no middle class here, as if there were no everyday struggling individuals, fighters of life. As is almost always the case, history is written by the powerful. And powerful, immediately after the Liberation and for about a century, were the former notables and their descendants. The local factions held the municipality like a fief with their power. They would raise and lower governments in which they also participated.

The book approaches the leadership groups of Patras with a critical eye, unearthing evidence and testimonies carefully hidden in the depths of the historical archives. The aim is a fairer recording of history, consciously bypassing the not a few hagiographies that have been written about the city's factions, as these can easily be found and compared with the information in the book.