Raymond Carr (1919–2015)

I had seen this book reviewed as the best, single volume, concise history of Spain. Being a sucker for all things Spanish stemming from my college days, I thought I would pick it up.

I can't say that it is the best single volume treatment because I continue to believed that James Michener's Iberia remains the very best history of Spain I have read but this book is a solid second. Plus, it has the benefit of being far more current as Michener's book was written while Franco was still in show more power.

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. show less

It is tough to read this book due to the author's dry writing style. It is recommended that one has prior knowledge of the covered era in this book as the author frequently dumps huge amounts of information on the reader in one page. Someone who doesn't have any background on spanish history will certainly be overwhelmed by this book. Nevertheless, i would still give it four stars due to the very informative nature of this book. One can really learn a lot if one has the patience to dive show more through this book. show less

2367 Spain 1808-1939, by Raymond Carr (read 12 Mar 1991) This magisterial 1966 book is really worth reading and having done so it makes me feel I understand recent Spanish history much better. I confess some chapters, dealing with much I knew little about, drug, but from 1923 on all seemed immediate and revealing. Even the earlier time cast much light on Franco and his era. I thought this book excellent even though it often assumed one knew what had happened and spent its time talking about show more it rather than telling about it. show less

This is a standard general history of Spain, by a sympathetic English historian, between the emergence of modern nationalism as a result of the Napoleonic invasion, and the fall of the Second Republic.