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From Roman times to the present day, Spain has occupied a significant role in the evolution of our Western world. This book highlights the notable trends, intellectual and social, of each particular era in its history. The imposition of Roman rule created the notion of Hispania as a single entity. Chapters on the Visigoth monarchy, Moorish Spain, the establishment, an empire, the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, all chart the political and economic development of Spain, but also emphasize the extraordinary and diverse artistic and literary achievements of the Spanish people within this one country at these different times. Moving on to the nineteenth century, we read of the rise of liberalism, and of its fall, which ushered in a period of disarray leading to the Civil War and authoritarian rule. Today Spain is a fully integrated and enthusiastic member of the European community.… (more)
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I can't say that it is the best single volume treatment because I continue to believed that James Michener's Iberia
The book is not by one author but rather a group of authors covering discrete time periods of Spanish history. For example, Henry Kamen wrote the section on Spain's Golden Age (I enjoyed his How Spain Became a World Power. I thought the prehistoric and Roman sections to be some of the better parts of the book. Some parts admittedly dragged but I think that is a function of the history rather than the writing. Personally, I find the long period of imperial decline to be somewhat boring with the exception of Francisco Goya.
I think there is a lot to commend this book to a general reader. The history of Spain is especially diverse and interesting and that history played a significant role in the overall development of Western Europe.
I will say that the book could benefit from a new edition that dealt with Spain's recent efforts to deal with the legacy of Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. At the time this was published there was less of a concrete challenge to the Pact of Forgetting then there is now. Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett covers this more recent development and has my vote for an additional chapter.