This study is a short comprehensive version of several long studies that have appeared over the years as Peleus volumes. It contains chapters on the most important historical events that occurred in Greece between 1900 and 1939, beginning with the Balkan Wars and World War I. The chapter on the Paris Peace Conference describes how Venizelos was asked by President Wilson and British Prime Minister Lloyd George to ban an Italian landing in Smyrna. Venizelos used this "police action" to realize the Megali Idea that led to the catastrophe in Asia Minor.

Chapters describing the social and economic developments in Greece until 1935 are followed by a chapter devoted to the Metaxas dictatorship. This chapter clearly shows that this dictatorship was fascist. Greek fascism differed from the European types, however, because it was clientelistic. The book ends with the outbreak of World War II.