A disconcerting outcome of the last two parliamentary elections in Greece has been the rise of the far-right party Golden Dawn into third position and its entry into parliament. While this mirrors parallel developments in France, Austria, Belgium, the UK, Hungary and elsewhere, Golden Dawn is unique among European parties in its rejection of parliamentarianism, openly embracing violence as a means of realizing its political goals, and definition of the Greek nation on biological and racial grounds. Analysts have identified a range of endemic causes that underlie its recent electoral success: the economic crisis and record levels of unemployment; the clientelism of the Greek political system that could not be sustained once the economy collapsed; the long historical roots of authoritarianism, patriarchy, and social conservatism among a segment of the population. In this talk, I explore some further potential explanations of this phenomenon. Drawing on the findings of the Youth and History project carried out in 27 European countries in the mid-1990’s, I argue that the discourses of continuity, Othering, and Western condescension seen in Greek high-school students’ responses more than a decade before the crisis erupted reflect broader societal discourses also manifested in ideologies about language in Greece during the 19th and 20th centuries. While these discourses were a part of the nation-building process at the time, the lack of historical awareness and naïve ethnocentrism that accompanied them left Greek society vulnerable and ideologically “ready” to be swayed to political extremes when faced with extreme circumstances (the current economic crisis coupled with the influx of immigrants and refugees).