The Edinburgh History of the Greeks is a multi-volume, chronological series covering the history of the Greek people from antiquity to the present. Each volume combines political history with social and cultural history in order to tell the story of the Greek people over the course of recorded history in an exciting, novel and innovatory way. Drawing on the rich resources from anthropology, archaeology and history, as well as political science, philology, art, literature and law, the books will be diverse, abundant and vibrant.

The Greeks suffer from too much history, some have said. Indeed, library bookshelves sag under the weight of the massive number of tomes devoted to the history of Greece during the ancient, medieval and modern periods. This series differs from them by focusing on the history of a people, the Greeks, and not a place, Greece. The story will reflect the fluctuating dynamics of change while primary sources and accounts of the lives of individuals and communities will invigorate the text.

The history of the Greeks over the long durée must be told on a vast and at times even global scale, and so the Greek world is taken to include not just the area traditionally associated with ancient Greece or the territory of the modern Greek state, but encompasses all areas where Greeks have settled, including the diaspora of modern times.