The reader holding the first two volumes of the History of Greece in the 20th century should not seek in them the presentation of events that are now part of the past.

In the "Beginnings," as well as in the volumes concerning the Interwar period, World War II, and the Civil War, as well as for Post-war Greece that follow, they will find an analysis of trends and data that still shape the present of Greek society.

The authors of the twenty contributions contained in the "Beginnings" of the century did not aim for a linear narration of the past but for the identification and highlighting of the origins of trends and conditions that clearly differentiated Greek society in the 20th century from the preceding period and which, to a large extent, characterize it to this day.

This approach, while remaining faithful to the timeless study of phenomena that is characteristic of historical science, deviates from an adherence to chronological order as the sole causal relationship among the historical data it examines.

In addition to this, and instead of it, it identifies real relationships that arise from the nature and evolution of the phenomena it studies.

The result of this choice is the architecture of the chapters in the "Beginnings," the first part of the History of Greece in the 20th century.

Historical time in the various sectors of social life is not the same.