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How can one compile a 2000-year history of Spain into one slim 300 page book? Ask Editor Raymond Carr. He just did it --- and it's filled with beautiful illustrations. What's more, he's created a seamless history of a fractured country, using eight other contributors: Sebastian Balfour, Roger Collins, A. T. Fear, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Richard Fletcher, Richard Herr, Henry Kamen, and Angus MacKay. Add all this together and you have a palatable, informative, richly detailed yet not overbearing history of one of the great countries of the world.
Just recently, my beautiful wife and I traveled to Spain. If only we had Carr's SPAIN: A History to illuminate our experiences. Certainly there is beauty --- we were constantly struck by things fantastic and wondrous. The view of the Mediterranean from Montjuïc in Barcelona, the spires of the Sagrada Família, the Velásquez canvases in The Prado, the train rides through desolate countryside, the cathedrals all spoke to us in so many ways. But what struck us even more than the beauty was the history. Around every corner there stood a building older than anything standing in America. In Barcelona we stood before the sarcophagus of a saint buried 1,000 years ago. History is what makes a place come alive. Carr's book makes Spain come alive.
We start at the beginning, thanks to A. T. Fear: "Human history began early in the peninsula. The bones of one of man's earliest ancestors, Homo antecessor, who lived 800,000 years ago, have been unearthed near Burgos, and Neanderthal Man (c. 60,000 BC) might have been more just christened Gibraltar Woman, as the Rock was the site of the first Neanderthal finds."
We find ourselves in the midst of Visigothic Spain before the Early Middle Ages when Muslim's ruled: "Early medieval Spain was multicultural in the sense of being culturally diverse, a land within which different cultures coexisted; but not in the sense of experiencing cultural integration. Toleration for Christians and Jews as "Peoples of the Book" is enjoyed by the Koran. But in practice it was limited..."
Empires form. Ferdinand and Isabella rule, sending Columbus to discover new worlds. Philip III expels virtually all descendants of the Moors. Worlds are conquered --- Pizarro brings the Incan Empire to its knees and Charles V conquers Africa. Empires begin to sink. The Spanish Armada in 1588 is faced by the British --- it is their worst military disaster. Spain continues to sink and grow, sink and grow, with ebbs and flows throughout the years.
The Spanish Civil War plays prominently towards the closing of the book: "On each side, the war was fought over different but interrelated issues. Within the insurgent side a wide range of political agendas coexisted, from the defense of the traditional order to fascist 'modernity.'" It concludes discussing where Spain is today and where it may be headed in the near-distant future.
Perhaps SPAIN: A History will be used in colleges across the country as a textbook in various history classes. But don't be fooled. It is not a textbook in the traditional sense, i.e., boring, stuffy, overladen with facts. It is an interesting book telling a most interesting story. One can see that Spain is not perfect, it has problems just as any other country does; but it has a rich and glorious past, one filled with artistic, literary, military and royal achievements. It has made its mark not only on Europe but the world.
Carr, former Warden of St. Anthony's College at Oxford University, knows Spain. He is the author of six books on Spanish history, including MODERN SPAIN: 1875-1980 and THE SPANISH TRAGEDY: The Civil War in Perspective. This knowledge is all too evident in his contribution to the book as well as his choice of individuals to write the various sections. They are all "academic" in the sense that they are thoughtful, objective writings but at the same time they are cogent and create understanding.
My wife and I want to go back to Spain. It touched us in a way that really can't be described. Listening to an operatic street performer in a Barcelona alleyway, trying to fathom a Salvador Dali painting in Figueres, wandering through the halls of the National Palace in Madrid, sipping horchata in the Plaza Mayor --- these are memories that will never leave. When we do return, I know I'll go with a richer understanding, thanks to Raymond Carr and his book SPAIN: A History.
--- Reviewed by Jonathan Shipley
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