«Every authority, and naturally every state, in order to defend the dominant order, cannot solely invoke and apply repression. It is, in any case, generally necessary to develop the mechanisms of bourgeois ideology, especially the aims of the state and its continuity, and particularly of each governmental administrator of the state. From this rule, of course, the Greek state could not be excluded, neither from its founding nor subsequently. The ideas upon which social consensus was built throughout the 19th century were mainly based on the dichotomy of economic development-national expansion. Until 1922, the schema that encapsulates both pursuits is that of the “Great Idea”.» from the author's preface. 

In this book, Nikos Pelekoudas deconstructs the national myths upon which the first century of the Greek state was based: national unity as a prerequisite for social prosperity, the purity of the nation, and the infallibility of the individuals whom official history baptized as "national heroes" and "benefactors". Through his sharp class perspective on historical figures and events, the author gives them their true dimensions. At the same time, he highlights the "social disasters" caused by the ideologies and practices of the dominant class (poverty, refugee crises, national-religious cleansings, etc.).