shelf This edition...The History of Spain, Its defining moments and most notable advocates.
A History of Spain Simon Barton
The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 Anthony Beever
‘Spain is different’ was for a long time the explanation proffered by historians when they sought to explain the course of the nation’s exceptionally rich and varied history. Spain was the only region in the medieval West (along with Sicily) to experience Islamic conquest; the first nation to lay claim to a global empire and the first to lose it; and the country in which the extreme forces of the Left and the Right were to act out one of the bloodiest confrontations Europe has known.
The civil war that tore Spain apart between 1936 and 1939 and attracted liberals and socialists from across the world to support the cause against Franco was one of the most hard-fought and bitterest conflicts of the 20th century: a war of atrocities and political genocide and a military testing ground before WWII for the Russians, Italians and Germans, whose Condor Legion so notoriously destroyed Guernica.
Today, however, as Spain has become firmly integrated into the political and economic structures of the European Union, the long-held notion that the country is a nation apart no longer seems valid. Simon Barton probes the extent to which Spain should be regarded as an exceptional case and provides a highly-readable, lucid and balanced account of its vibrant and colourful history, from its origins to the present day..
El Cid: The Making of a Legend M.J. Trow
And so the Cid rode out of the gates of history - and into legend. Viewed at one level, Rodrigo Diaz, from the little town of Burgos in Castile, was just another warlord, like countless others. That he fought for Muslim as well as Christian sent a shudder of outrage through the whole of Christendom; the man was a traitor to his God as well as his king. Why, then, was an epic film starring Charlton Heston made about the man known as El Cid? Why is he Antony Beevor’s account narrates the the national hero of Spain and why is there origins of the Civil War and its violent and a statue to him in his native Burgos, and in dramatic course from the coup d’etat in New York City? July 1936 through the savage fighting of the next three years which ended in Acclaimed author M.J. Trow peals back catastrophic defeat for the Republicans in the layers of legend. He reveals the facts 1939. of the Cid’s life and places his life in the context of the times, looks at how the Cid became the hero of the Reconquista in his own time and in later centuries, examines the way Spain’s politicians and ruling elite have used the icon of the Cid, and discusses why the man and his story have fascinated numerous writers, from the 16th century to modern times.
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