For nearly five years the international press has been gripped by and reported at great length on "the Greek crisis," with news stories gradually filtering out from the deeper recesses of the economic section to the front pages, as the crisis has intensified and mass protests in Athens have caught the world's attention. Meanwhile, what began as a localized fiscal deficit problem grew to be a crisis that challenged the political and social fabric of the nation and at times seemed destined to undermine the very existence of a global currency, the Euro.

This book, written in an accessible and non- technical manner, tells the story of the lengthy crisis that has beset Greece and the wider Eurozone. Is it a purely economic phenomenon or something wider and deeper, as many Greeks would suggest? Are its causes to be found in the prevailing international financial environment or the economic and political system which has evolved in Greece since the early 1970s? Have many of the choices made by both domestic and international actors, such as the IMF and the EU, merely exacerbated the crisis? Most importantly, what has been the impact of the crisis on the daily lives of the country's inhabitants?