The distinguished historian Michael Llewellyn-Smith, author of the classic work Ionian Vision as well as many other significant studies on modern Greece, writes about this book: The story of how the Greeks established their independent state, through a mixture of bravery, persistence, cunning, and ingenuity, is inspiring, and there is no better moment to narrate it than the 200th anniversary of the start of the Greek War of Independence in 1821.

The new book by Athina Kakourioti, 1821: The Foundation of Modern Greece, narrates the entire complex story, from the outbreak of the war in March 1821 to the emergence of a typically independent state, in an English language adapted from the Greek original, suitable for younger readers.

The main focus of the book is, as it rightly should be, the leading Greek figures, ranging from the brave warrior Theodoros Kolokotronis, with his vividly alive words about the "torment" of leading an army of Greeks, to the Western-influenced Alexandros Mavrokordatos (for whom Kakourioti has little sympathy), and above all, the tragic figure of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the "Governor" or first President of Greece, who did everything he could, with scant resources, to create a well-governed modern state. He was assassinated in Nafplio on September 27, 1831. Kapodistrias is the first hero of this book. The other is the Greek People, to whom the emerging national consciousness owes much of the appearance of the Greek state.

In a busy market, the book holds its own with the intensity of its narrative and judgments, as well as with Athina Kakourioti's knowledge and love for her homeland and its people.

Athina Kakourioti, born in 1928 in the city of Patras, has lived in Vienna, Pennsylvania, and primarily in Athens. She has children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She has worked in an oil company, a shipping company, in tourism, and as a journalist and translator. She has published four volumes of detective stories, eight historical novels, and three studies of history, all related to Greece over the last two centuries. Her translations of Stephen Vincent Benét's short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and Charles Dickens's work "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," as well as her novels Primarolia, set in Patras at the end of the 19th century, and Thekli, set during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, have been awarded significant literary prizes. Her more recent works include two studies of the political rift that divided Greece during World War I, and a fresh look at the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the creation of the modern Greek state, a translation of which is the volume you hold in your hands.