He is the founder of the concept of historical continuity of Greece from antiquity to the present, establishing the tripartite division of Greek history in ancient, medieval and modern, and sought to set aside the prevailing views at the time that the Byzantine Empire was a period of decadence and degeneration.

His mother, who survived the slaughters, fled to Odessa, where Paparrigopoulos accomplished his studies at the Richelieu Lyceum as a bursar of the Tsar Alexander I.

[citation needed] In 1830 Paparrigopoulos travelled to Greece to study in the "Central School" (Κεντρικό Σχολείο) of Aegina, founded by the Greek leader Ioannis Kapodistrias.

In 1855 he gave his inaugural lecture as professor of the university, contradicting a theory that did not recognise the importance of the Dorian influence on the civilization of ancient Greece.

[citation needed] Nonetheless, his monumental writing is the History of the Greek nation, comprising 6 volumes, which were later complemented by Pavlos Karolidis.

Paparrigopoulos' classes at the University, which constituted the raw material for the writing of his memorable History, were frequently published in Pandora magazine, of which he was the co-publisher, as well as in the Athenian Press.

The term Greek-Christian which was devised for scientific purposes, functioned towards the same direction but did not remain a simple instrument of analysis in the hands of specialists.

[citation needed] Another great virtue of Paparrigopoulos is the elegance of his style and his literary charisma, which makes his texts readable and his narrations particularly vivid.

[citation needed] Paparrigopoulos not only offered a united image of the history (ancient-medieval-modern) of the Greek nation, but, at the same time, he articulated in the most stirring way the pains and the dramas of the modern Hellenism.