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Spain: A Unique History
From bloodthirsty conquest to exotic romance, stereotypes of Spain abound. This new volume by distinguished historian Stanley G. Payne draws on his half-century of experience to offer a balanced, broadly chronological survey of Spanish history from the Visigoths to the present. Who were the first “Spaniards”? Is Spain a fully Western country? Was Spanish liberalism a failure? Examining Spain’s unique role in the larger history of Western Europe, Payne reinterprets key aspects of the country’s history.
Topics include Muslim culture in the peninsula, the Spanish monarchy, the empire, and the relationship between Spain and Portugal. Turning to the twentieth century, Payne discusses the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War. The book’s final chapters focus on the Franco regime, the nature of Spanish fascism, and the special role of the military. Analyzing the figure of Franco himself, Payne seeks to explain why some Spaniards still regard him with respect, while many others view the late dictator with profound loathing.
Framed by reflections on the author’s own formation as a Hispanist and his evaluation of the controversy about “historical memory” in contemporary Spain, this volume offers deeply informed insights into both the history and the historiography of a unique country.
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association
Topics include Muslim culture in the peninsula, the Spanish monarchy, the empire, and the relationship between Spain and Portugal. Turning to the twentieth century, Payne discusses the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War. The book’s final chapters focus on the Franco regime, the nature of Spanish fascism, and the special role of the military. Analyzing the figure of Franco himself, Payne seeks to explain why some Spaniards still regard him with respect, while many others view the late dictator with profound loathing.
Framed by reflections on the author’s own formation as a Hispanist and his evaluation of the controversy about “historical memory” in contemporary Spain, this volume offers deeply informed insights into both the history and the historiography of a unique country.
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 11, 2011
45 people are currently reading
313 people want to read
About the author
Stanley G. Payne
81 books104 followersStanley G. Payne is a historian of modern Spain and European Fascism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He retired from full time teaching in 2004 and is currently Professor Emeritus at its Department of History.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 25, 2012
Stanley G. Payne is one of the most prolific American Hispanist historians out there, but his eminent academic status and myriad publications still can't erase the fact that he has some extremely prejudicial thoughts about the contributions of Andalusian Spain. He deigns to call medievalist Yale professor María Rosa Menocal's groundbreaking ORNAMENT OF THE WORLD: HOW MUSLIMS, JEWS, AND CHRISTIANS CREATED A CULTURE OF TOLERANCE IN MEDIEVAL SPAIN a "fable"!!!! Even though Payne touts himself as existing on the pro-Spain point of the continuum he describes as "hysterical Hispanism"--ie. either subscribing to the "Romantic Spain" or the "Black Legend" version of Spain, he does a remarkable job of discounting any kind of literature or culture that has come out of Spain, with the exception of perhaps the typical nod to DON QUIJOTE. He makes sweeping generalizations about Spanish Golden Age drama's lacking the sophistication and character development of Elizabethan drama, and he does not bother to back any of this up. A quick look on the MLA bibliography would have told him that there are scores of studies comparing the two countries' similar styles of Renaissance drama, but he didn't even bother to read any of them. It's amazing to me that someone could be such an accomplished Hispanist historian and not even think about becoming somewhat acquainted with his nation of study's literature. By doing this, Payne is just perpetuating the myth that Spain has nothing to offer and helping to keep Spanish literature and history out of basic world literature books and world history books. Payne rails against "political correctness" and "multicultural deconstruction" through the book, and so it is no wonder that he doesn't consider any significant Spanish women's roles in Spanish history, this despite the fact that there are quite a few new books out on this topic that he could have picked up. It's interesting to note that Payne uses less than 25 pages of footnote material while Hispanist historian Theresa Ann Smith uses 3 times this amount for a book that is not as long as Payne's! I guess this goes to show you that veteran scholars can get away with a lot more than beginning ones! However, it would be foolish to get bulldozed by these many shortcomings and not recognize Payne's amazing grasp of Spanish history from Visigothic Spain to the present. Payne does a masterful job of pointing out how Spain has been an exceptional country in Western Europe that has all too often been a victim of what he defines as 3 major stereotypes generated by foreigners about Spain: 1)the sadistic conquistador and inquisitor Spaniard of the early Renaissance, 2)the pompous, ignorant Spaniard of the Baroque and Enlightenment periods and the 3)brave, anti-materialistic, simple Spaniard emblematic of "Romantic Spain", a stereotype that lasted from the nineteenth century all the way to the mid twentieth century. Needless to say, Spain is a lot more multi-dimensional that that, and Payne shows us this dynamism by showing how Spain is different from but also comparable to many of its European neighbors in its development as a nation.
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September 7, 2016An idiosyncratic and ultimately disappointing overview of Spain's history by one of the leading modern historians of the country, Payne's analysis is rather superficial; too often, he is satisfied with debunking an 'accepted' version of events, without exploring the questions that an alternative version raises.
For example, Payne dedicates a lot of time to dismissing the motion that the Republican side during the Civil War stood for liberal democracy, but here he is really arguing with pro-Republican political propaganda circa 1937, not with current historiography. And rather than simply railing against the Republic's lack of democratic credentials, he might usefully have explored the question as to why a large part of Spanish liberalism had decided to adopt an authoritarian approach, why a large portion of the Spanish Socialist Party was committed to revolutionary rather than gradualist change and why, uniquely in world history, Spain produced mass radical anarchist movements in both rural and urban settings.
To take another example, Payne is highly critical of the PSOE's controversial decision to politicise the issue of the recent past at the start of the 21st century, but his explanation is far from enlightening. It is, he argues, simply the expression of the dominance of the 'ideology' of political correctness. A more convincing explanation would need to set the decision in the context of the PSOE's economic policies of the time, and the need for the party to establish a clear distinction between itself and its opponents on the right.
Payne's account of the post-Franco transition and the subsequent success of Spanish democracy is similarly lacking. While he is clearly right to identify this as broadly positive, to anyone who is familiar with Spanish politics in the 1990s and 2000s, the most striking feature of the Spanish political system during this period has been the paradox of the broad simillarity between the economic programmes of its two main parties, and the visceral hatred that divides them. Among other things, this almost tribal antipathy has provided the basis for a party system so strong that corruption was an almost inevitable consequence, and it has contributed to Spain's economic crisis by allowing politics to become a vehicle for dodgy land deals and speculative investment decisions.
For example, Payne dedicates a lot of time to dismissing the motion that the Republican side during the Civil War stood for liberal democracy, but here he is really arguing with pro-Republican political propaganda circa 1937, not with current historiography. And rather than simply railing against the Republic's lack of democratic credentials, he might usefully have explored the question as to why a large part of Spanish liberalism had decided to adopt an authoritarian approach, why a large portion of the Spanish Socialist Party was committed to revolutionary rather than gradualist change and why, uniquely in world history, Spain produced mass radical anarchist movements in both rural and urban settings.
To take another example, Payne is highly critical of the PSOE's controversial decision to politicise the issue of the recent past at the start of the 21st century, but his explanation is far from enlightening. It is, he argues, simply the expression of the dominance of the 'ideology' of political correctness. A more convincing explanation would need to set the decision in the context of the PSOE's economic policies of the time, and the need for the party to establish a clear distinction between itself and its opponents on the right.
Payne's account of the post-Franco transition and the subsequent success of Spanish democracy is similarly lacking. While he is clearly right to identify this as broadly positive, to anyone who is familiar with Spanish politics in the 1990s and 2000s, the most striking feature of the Spanish political system during this period has been the paradox of the broad simillarity between the economic programmes of its two main parties, and the visceral hatred that divides them. Among other things, this almost tribal antipathy has provided the basis for a party system so strong that corruption was an almost inevitable consequence, and it has contributed to Spain's economic crisis by allowing politics to become a vehicle for dodgy land deals and speculative investment decisions.
January 22, 2020
What makes this book a unique history is something that will either likely win over or alienate the readers of this book, and that is the author's personal touch and his replacement of a narrative flow for Spanish history with a discussion of vital historical questions and problems that historians of Spain (and Portugal) have to wrestle with when writing their own histories. I found this approach to be a welcome one, and as I am an autodictat concerning many historical matters in the same way that the author is about Spanish history, my ability to relate to the author's approach and his idiosyncratic blend of amateur and professional history as well as his early adoption of the practice of oral history in understanding the Spanish Civil War. The author also hilariously shares what it is that Franco's spies thought about the author and his efforts to understand the Falangists from a not-unsympathetic view that demonstrates his essential honesty as a historian. All of this was immensely refreshing to me, and it may be to a reader who has some knowledge of the narrative scope of Spanish history and the various stereotypes of Spain as a backwards country as well as romantic views of the country as different and a bit exotic.
This particular book is a bit more than 250 pages and it is divided into three parts and sixteen chapters. The first part, after a list of maps and abbreviations and a discussion of the image of Spain in an introduction, is the author's account of how he became a Hispanist through the course of his graduate school education and writings (I). This sets for the context of how he went about doing historical research. After that the author provides a reading of the history of Spain (II) in several chapters that explore various contentious matters, such as whether the Visigoths and Asturians can be considered as Spaniards (1), the myth of Muslim tolerance in Al-Andalus (2), the question of the Spanish ideology that was involved in the Reconquista (3), the peripheral nature of Spain to the West (4), the problems of identity and monarchy and empire within Spanish history (5), the relationship between Spain and Portugal and how the two are not often viewed in relationship to each other (6) by historians of either, as well as the problem of decline and recovery (7) and the problematic nature of Spanish liberalism in the 19th and 20th centuries (8) and its lack of popular support. After that the author closes with several chapters on contemporary dilemmas in Spanish history (III), such as the nature of the Spanish Republic and its absence of centrist democrats (9), who was responsible for the Spanish Civil War (10), the controversial relationship between Madrid and Moscow during the Spanish Civil War (11), whether the Spanish Civil War was the harbinger of World War II or the last post-World War I conflict (12), the strange case of Spanish Fascism (13), how Francisco Franco is to be viewed (14), as well as the question of the shadow of the military (15) in contemporary Spain as well as the controversies over history in contemporary Spain (16), all of which the author has opinions about, after which there are the usual notes and an index.
What this book does particularly well is to demonstrate the difficulty one has in writing history well. The author is especially apt in pointing out the ideological biases of many leftist thinkers that have blinded them to important truths in Spanish history that also blind them to the implications of Spanish history for how it can better serve as a warning for contemporary American society and other societies. The author's honesty in pointing out that all too many leftists simply view Fascist as a term of abuse rather than as a political system that has to be dealt with by its own definitions, and in showing how it is that the political violence of the left has often (as it did in Spain) prompt its opponents to act out. The author also notes through comparative history the different regions of Spain and how it is that nationalism has exhibited itself through the years, and how it appears to have been ended in the aftermath of Franco's death and the succession to democracy afterward. It appears difficult to this reader, though, how Spain will stay as a unified nation without some sense of nationalism in the face of separatism from Catalans, Basques, and others. The author, thankfully, does not wade into such waters directly, though, saving his interest for the past and avoiding speculation even while providing insights for those readers who are so inclined.
This particular book is a bit more than 250 pages and it is divided into three parts and sixteen chapters. The first part, after a list of maps and abbreviations and a discussion of the image of Spain in an introduction, is the author's account of how he became a Hispanist through the course of his graduate school education and writings (I). This sets for the context of how he went about doing historical research. After that the author provides a reading of the history of Spain (II) in several chapters that explore various contentious matters, such as whether the Visigoths and Asturians can be considered as Spaniards (1), the myth of Muslim tolerance in Al-Andalus (2), the question of the Spanish ideology that was involved in the Reconquista (3), the peripheral nature of Spain to the West (4), the problems of identity and monarchy and empire within Spanish history (5), the relationship between Spain and Portugal and how the two are not often viewed in relationship to each other (6) by historians of either, as well as the problem of decline and recovery (7) and the problematic nature of Spanish liberalism in the 19th and 20th centuries (8) and its lack of popular support. After that the author closes with several chapters on contemporary dilemmas in Spanish history (III), such as the nature of the Spanish Republic and its absence of centrist democrats (9), who was responsible for the Spanish Civil War (10), the controversial relationship between Madrid and Moscow during the Spanish Civil War (11), whether the Spanish Civil War was the harbinger of World War II or the last post-World War I conflict (12), the strange case of Spanish Fascism (13), how Francisco Franco is to be viewed (14), as well as the question of the shadow of the military (15) in contemporary Spain as well as the controversies over history in contemporary Spain (16), all of which the author has opinions about, after which there are the usual notes and an index.
What this book does particularly well is to demonstrate the difficulty one has in writing history well. The author is especially apt in pointing out the ideological biases of many leftist thinkers that have blinded them to important truths in Spanish history that also blind them to the implications of Spanish history for how it can better serve as a warning for contemporary American society and other societies. The author's honesty in pointing out that all too many leftists simply view Fascist as a term of abuse rather than as a political system that has to be dealt with by its own definitions, and in showing how it is that the political violence of the left has often (as it did in Spain) prompt its opponents to act out. The author also notes through comparative history the different regions of Spain and how it is that nationalism has exhibited itself through the years, and how it appears to have been ended in the aftermath of Franco's death and the succession to democracy afterward. It appears difficult to this reader, though, how Spain will stay as a unified nation without some sense of nationalism in the face of separatism from Catalans, Basques, and others. The author, thankfully, does not wade into such waters directly, though, saving his interest for the past and avoiding speculation even while providing insights for those readers who are so inclined.
September 29, 2017
I really liked this one not sure why it had such poor reviews. Does a great job of explaining Spanish history with focus on 1920s/1930s and ties it into modern era without taking political sides.
July 31, 2025
Stanley G Payne: Spain: A unique history
Det var ett tag sedan man läste högakademisk facklitteratur…på engelska.
Payne, en välrenommerad historieprofessor vid universitetet Wisconsin-Maddison, har ägnat en stor del av sin forskning speciellt åt Spanien och dess historia.
I denna utgåva behandlar han i princip Spaniens historia från visigoternas erövring på 400-talet via de tecken på en enhetlig stat med ett centralt styre på 1200-talet fram till tiden efter Franco.
Som sagt, det var inte igår som undertecknad gick i närkontakt med tung, engelsk akademitext och därför blev inte själva läsupplevelsen något som hade gillats av Speedy Gonzales.
Payne fokuserar framförallt dels på framväxten av den senmedeltida, starka spanska staten, dess sönderfall på 1700-och 1800-talen och sedan på tiden för det spanska inbördeskriget och Francos maktövertagande.
Hade , felaktigt visade det sig, förväntat mig mer om tiden före medeltiden dvs när Rom höll i styret, och utrikespolitiken under storhetstiden på 1500-0ch 1600-talen.
Kom dock till några nya insikter:
Att Spanien , ifrån slutet av sin storhetstid fram till långt in på 1900-talet, inte följde med den nya samhällsutvecklingen i Europa som bl.a. upplysningstiden medförde, utan fick ta på sig rollen som en konservativ del av Europas bakgård.
Att “republikanerna” under det spanska inbördeskriget långt ifrån kunde betraktas som en enhetlig, sammansvetsad socialistisk sida som bildade en gemensam front mot fascisterna. Tvärtom drog dom åt olika håll när det gällde Spaniens framtid; Socialister åt ett håll , socialdemokrater åt ett, kommunister åt ett annat osv. Det var förmodligen detta som bidrog till fascisternas, och Francos seger.
Dock kan man säga att Spanien idag har lämnat Europas bakgård och nu är ett europeiskt land med en relativt stabil demokrati och progressiv samhällsutveckling.
In English:
It has been a while since one read highly academic non-fiction... in English.
Payne, a renowned history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has devoted much of his research specifically to Spain and its history.
In this edition, he covers Spain's history from the Visigoth conquest in the 5th century, through the signs of a unified state with a central government in the 13th century, to the post-Franco era.
As I said, it wasn't yesterday that I came into close contact with heavy English academic texts, so the reading experience itself was not something that Speedy Gonzales would have enjoyed.
Payne focuses primarily on the emergence of the strong Spanish state in the late Middle Ages, its collapse in the 18th and 19th centuries, and then on the period of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's seizure of power.
I had, incorrectly as it turned out, expected more about the period before the Middle Ages, i.e. when Rome was in power, and foreign policy during the heyday of the 16th and 17th centuries.
However, I did gain some new insights:
From the end of its heyday until well into the 20th century, Spain did not keep pace with the new social developments in Europe brought about by the Enlightenment, among other things, but instead took on the role of a conservative part of Europe's backyard.
During the Spanish Civil War, the ‘Republicans’ were far from being a unified, cohesive socialist force that formed a common front against the fascists. On the contrary, they pulled in different directions when it came to Spain's future; socialists in one direction, social democrats in another, communists in yet another, and so on. This was probably what contributed to the victory of the fascists and Franco.
However, it can be said that Spain has now left Europe's backyard and is now a European country with a relatively stable democracy and progressive social development.
Det var ett tag sedan man läste högakademisk facklitteratur…på engelska.
Payne, en välrenommerad historieprofessor vid universitetet Wisconsin-Maddison, har ägnat en stor del av sin forskning speciellt åt Spanien och dess historia.
I denna utgåva behandlar han i princip Spaniens historia från visigoternas erövring på 400-talet via de tecken på en enhetlig stat med ett centralt styre på 1200-talet fram till tiden efter Franco.
Som sagt, det var inte igår som undertecknad gick i närkontakt med tung, engelsk akademitext och därför blev inte själva läsupplevelsen något som hade gillats av Speedy Gonzales.
Payne fokuserar framförallt dels på framväxten av den senmedeltida, starka spanska staten, dess sönderfall på 1700-och 1800-talen och sedan på tiden för det spanska inbördeskriget och Francos maktövertagande.
Hade , felaktigt visade det sig, förväntat mig mer om tiden före medeltiden dvs när Rom höll i styret, och utrikespolitiken under storhetstiden på 1500-0ch 1600-talen.
Kom dock till några nya insikter:
Att Spanien , ifrån slutet av sin storhetstid fram till långt in på 1900-talet, inte följde med den nya samhällsutvecklingen i Europa som bl.a. upplysningstiden medförde, utan fick ta på sig rollen som en konservativ del av Europas bakgård.
Att “republikanerna” under det spanska inbördeskriget långt ifrån kunde betraktas som en enhetlig, sammansvetsad socialistisk sida som bildade en gemensam front mot fascisterna. Tvärtom drog dom åt olika håll när det gällde Spaniens framtid; Socialister åt ett håll , socialdemokrater åt ett, kommunister åt ett annat osv. Det var förmodligen detta som bidrog till fascisternas, och Francos seger.
Dock kan man säga att Spanien idag har lämnat Europas bakgård och nu är ett europeiskt land med en relativt stabil demokrati och progressiv samhällsutveckling.
In English:
It has been a while since one read highly academic non-fiction... in English.
Payne, a renowned history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has devoted much of his research specifically to Spain and its history.
In this edition, he covers Spain's history from the Visigoth conquest in the 5th century, through the signs of a unified state with a central government in the 13th century, to the post-Franco era.
As I said, it wasn't yesterday that I came into close contact with heavy English academic texts, so the reading experience itself was not something that Speedy Gonzales would have enjoyed.
Payne focuses primarily on the emergence of the strong Spanish state in the late Middle Ages, its collapse in the 18th and 19th centuries, and then on the period of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's seizure of power.
I had, incorrectly as it turned out, expected more about the period before the Middle Ages, i.e. when Rome was in power, and foreign policy during the heyday of the 16th and 17th centuries.
However, I did gain some new insights:
From the end of its heyday until well into the 20th century, Spain did not keep pace with the new social developments in Europe brought about by the Enlightenment, among other things, but instead took on the role of a conservative part of Europe's backyard.
During the Spanish Civil War, the ‘Republicans’ were far from being a unified, cohesive socialist force that formed a common front against the fascists. On the contrary, they pulled in different directions when it came to Spain's future; socialists in one direction, social democrats in another, communists in yet another, and so on. This was probably what contributed to the victory of the fascists and Franco.
However, it can be said that Spain has now left Europe's backyard and is now a European country with a relatively stable democracy and progressive social development.
December 16, 2018
I had two purposes in choosing Stanley Payne's Spain: A Unique History. First, I wanted to read a history of Spain. And second, I wanted to read one authored by Stanley Payne. As someone whose political leanings and opinions align much more closely with the Left, I promised my Spanish husband that I would give Payne's version a chance. And so, for over almost one year, I slogged through this book. As many note, he almost lost me in the early chapters: a long, wandering discussion of his personal history with Spain and his thoughts on the state of Hispanism as a discipline. Then he finally launched into the history of Spain. And until about the 1920's, I was on the fence. Rather than giving a linear history of Spain, he tackles various characterizations of Spain or the prevailing literature about a given historical period and proceeds to offer alternative views. I realized too late that I should have read his History of Spain and Portugal first in order to get a better historical summary, and THEN read this book to get Payne's perspective on the scholarly debates over various periods of Spanish history.
The readability picked up significantly in the pre-Civil War era. The coverage of the 1920's to the 1950's is outstanding. I may not have been entirely persuaded by his viewpoint, but I could recognize the depth of analysis and quality of scholarship. I think any reading of this should be tempered by reading other prevailing scholars- Preston, Thomas, etc. But Payne's voice is an important part of getting a full picture on this controversial area of scholarship. The final chapter- a gratuitous railing against "political correctness" was completely unnecessary, and entirely unpersuasive.
The readability picked up significantly in the pre-Civil War era. The coverage of the 1920's to the 1950's is outstanding. I may not have been entirely persuaded by his viewpoint, but I could recognize the depth of analysis and quality of scholarship. I think any reading of this should be tempered by reading other prevailing scholars- Preston, Thomas, etc. But Payne's voice is an important part of getting a full picture on this controversial area of scholarship. The final chapter- a gratuitous railing against "political correctness" was completely unnecessary, and entirely unpersuasive.
Read
August 2, 2011SEVEN YEARS AGO this spring, Spain held what should have been a valedictory sort of election. Here was a modern European success story. Spaniards were richer and freer than ever before. Their country was a European power. The ruling right and the opposition left shared equal credit for establishing a democracy and a booming economy after Franco’s death in 1975. Read more...
December 21, 2013
Approximately the first 1/3 of the book was an extended version of what should have been a prologue going into depth on the Author's history rather than that of Spain. Once into the actual history of Spain, large sections that could have/should have been really interesting were either glossed over or extremely dry. Very disappointing.
September 17, 2023
The chapters on the Islamic conquest of Spain and who caused the Spanish Civil War alone made the entire book worthwhile.
September 18, 2021
Professor Payne has written a thorough, in-depth and surprisingly readable overview of Spanish history and how this history is and has been written. He is unsparingly accurate in pointing out the egregious mistakes of other writers, especially in the current PC post-modernist era. His dissection of those who like to paint the Muslim Al-Andalus as a sort of multicultural utopia is both edifying and fun to read, if you have a cruel streak. Ditto his observations of the left on the Civil War and Franco. He assumes a certain level of familiarity with the history of Spain, so this probably shouldn't be the first book one reads on the topic, but it should certainly be the second if the craft of the historian and intellectual honesty is important to you.
May 16, 2012
Payne's SPAIN: A UNIQUE HISTORY is an excellent piece of historiography from one of the world's leading Hispanists. Definitely not to be recommended to someone looking for an introduction to Spanish history; it's a must-read, however, for those familiar with the long and complex history of the the Iberian peninsula.
November 12, 2012
For a Civil War recap, this was decent. For all other purposes this was superficial and unsatisfying. The fact that personalities like Felipe II went unmentioned seems like a significant omission to me.
February 25, 2018
DNF. The tone this author uses makes this dry prose even harder to read. For someone whose entire career centers around Spain he sounds like he absolutely hates it. Unfortunately this was the only book on spanish history my library had.
May 23, 2023
Payne puts the "pain" in "Spain". This is not a book for general audiences, contrary to the award it inexplicably won. Here's the first sentence:
"The Iberian Peninsula entered recorded history with the Roman conquest, after which it became an integral part of the empire"
This Roman conquest seems important. There is, however, no further context for it. No date. Not even a century. The subsequent paragraph transitions to the Visigoths, 500 years later (if you Wikipedia the dates).
A better, more concise way to write this opening would have been: "Don't bother with this book if you're not already familiar with the 200-year Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula". An even more concise iteration might read: "Don't bother at all".
A huge problem with this book is that Spanish history often feels secondary to its purpose; Spain is an afterthought; the thesis of each chapter is focused instead on its author; the subject of the book is not "Spain", it is "Payne". Its thesis is only tangentially historical, and moreso self-congratulations for the author's own heterodox, and numbingly high-level takes against apparently established Spanish historical orthodoxy that a general audience reader would not in any way be familiar with.
It even begins with a gratuitous, nearly 40-page personal history in which he name-drops what seems to be every middling academic he had ever met in his life. I don't know if even a specialist in this field would recognize half these names. Interminable. If you are the county librarian who decided this book was going to be one of the four on Spanish history my library would carry: shame on you
"The Iberian Peninsula entered recorded history with the Roman conquest, after which it became an integral part of the empire"
This Roman conquest seems important. There is, however, no further context for it. No date. Not even a century. The subsequent paragraph transitions to the Visigoths, 500 years later (if you Wikipedia the dates).
A better, more concise way to write this opening would have been: "Don't bother with this book if you're not already familiar with the 200-year Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula". An even more concise iteration might read: "Don't bother at all".
A huge problem with this book is that Spanish history often feels secondary to its purpose; Spain is an afterthought; the thesis of each chapter is focused instead on its author; the subject of the book is not "Spain", it is "Payne". Its thesis is only tangentially historical, and moreso self-congratulations for the author's own heterodox, and numbingly high-level takes against apparently established Spanish historical orthodoxy that a general audience reader would not in any way be familiar with.
It even begins with a gratuitous, nearly 40-page personal history in which he name-drops what seems to be every middling academic he had ever met in his life. I don't know if even a specialist in this field would recognize half these names. Interminable. If you are the county librarian who decided this book was going to be one of the four on Spanish history my library would carry: shame on you
March 13, 2021
Es un buen libro, aunque hay que tener en cuenta que es imposible que pueda entrar en detalle dada la longitud de la historia de España. El libro, curiosamente, no realiza una descripción cronológica de la historia, sino que analiza temas referentes a la historia en un orden casi cronológico, ya que a veces efectúa ciertos saltos en el tiempo para analizar las causas o efectos de un mismo tema en diversos momentos de la historia.
Me ha gustado y probablemente lea más de él.
Me ha gustado y probablemente lea más de él.
August 9, 2024
I really liked Payne’s writing style and felt that he did a good job of keeping things objective and even offering a look into how things might have played out had different choices been made at key times. I only detracted a star because towards the end, it was a bit hard to keep track of all the different political parties and ideologies…I would have liked a better break down of some of those or maybe even a chart to help categorize them all…but all in all, I learned a lot and it was an entertaining read!!
October 5, 2025
This is less a play-by-play of all the history of Spain and more a series of engagements with some of the larger questions that pervade Spanish historiography in each of its different time spans. As this is the first book I've read on the history of Spain, I can't exactly evaluate his arguments themselves. But I did deeply appreciate the way he went about analyzing each of them and found much of it compelling.
December 28, 2022
I like books by older historians who by the end of their career aren’t afraid to write a general history filled with hot takes. It’s so refreshing to get the author’s direct opinion on the questions I’m most interested in (Was medieval Spain really a happy melting pot? How much Moorish influence is there still today? Whose fault was the civil war? Why were the Republicans such a hot mess? How evil was Franco?). He may not be right on all or even most of these takes (the guy does rail on ‘political correctness’ and ‘multiculturalism’…) but I find I can learn more from this sort of writing, particularly in a field I’m not familiar with, than from an author who also has formed opinions that inevitably influence their telling of the narrative but isn’t explicit abut them.
September 26, 2025
If you are looking for a introduction to spanish History Like me.....choose another book.
This book ist more a commentary to spanish History or debunking of myth but no structural History of Spain. The author excpects the Reader to basically know what happened in Spanisch History. But I expected it to actually Tell the story.
This book ist more a commentary to spanish History or debunking of myth but no structural History of Spain. The author excpects the Reader to basically know what happened in Spanisch History. But I expected it to actually Tell the story.
December 11, 2019
It was interesting to read what a foreign historian thinks about your country's history, but the author is clearly biased and writes things that are simply not true.
September 25, 2020
The book seems like a classic example of the rumblings of an extreme white ultra-nationalist and Islamophobic person, which gets especially apparent in the chapter Spain and Islam.
January 29, 2020
I really like the defense of the values of the Western Civilization in the book from leftish attacks of rewriting history using the victimization paradigm, a tool for a few to achieve power.
Also the outlook to Spanish universities is really accurate.
A good book certainly.
Also the outlook to Spanish universities is really accurate.
A good book certainly.
December 17, 2022
una estrella porque no le puedo dar menos
February 29, 2016
Spain, A Unique History; Stanley Payne
Reviewed by Graham Mulligan
Payne describes the study of Spanish history as problematic compared to other Western European countries. He summarizes the outsiders’ perceptions of Spain, the stereotypes, into four broad groups; the Black Legend stereotype of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the enlightenment second half of the seventeenth century and eighteenth century; the romantic myth of the nineteenth century; and the composite stereotypes of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Black Legend type viewed the Spanish as cruel, blood-thirsty, power hungry; the enlightened view was of a land inhabited by proud, lazy, unproductive people full of hollow vanity; then came the romantic type, picturesque Spaniards, people of faith and spiritual commitment; this is followed by the slow-to-modernize and politically stunted modern era, a Spain different from the rest of Europe.
Payne’s broad ranging analysis touches on the conflict or contrast of the two dominant cultures of Spain, the Castillian elite tradition featuring the serious, sobre, austere and calculating person, full of gravitas and dignity on the one hand, and the popular Andalusian, brave and frivolous, cheerful and lower class, on the other.
In the chapter on Spain and Islam, Payne laments the loss of half a millennium of Western Civilization and Latin Christendom due to the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711. His depiction is of jihad as a constant feature of Islamic culture resulting in a frontier between two civilizations, “hostile and violent but also permeable”. The perception of an ‘Oriental Spain’, unique in the West, is questioned by Payne. He asks ‘how much of an influence did the Muslims have on Spanish culture, society and institutions?’ The most important consequence, he says, was ‘to confer on Spain a historical role of frontier and periphery’.
In the final chapter, entitled ‘Controversies of History in Contemporary Spain’ Payne focuses his attention on ‘political correctness’ as an ideology dominant in the 1990’s. By this he means the ‘deconstruction of previously dominant paradigms, replaced by a contradictory combination of new political dogmas that coexist with radical subjectivism’. He opposes the elevation of race, class and gender in university studies of History, calling it ‘cultural Marxism’. The result of this in terms of Spanish history is a focus on the regions of Spain rather than on a national History of Spain. He goes on to decry the manner of historical research with regard to the Civil War and the Franco Regime. Payne argues for a ‘Spanish Transition’ to democracy ‘from the inside out’. By this he means peacefully evolving from an authoritarian regime to an egalitarian and democratic regime. This requires rejection of the politics of vengeance. He points to the political Left in contemporary Spain, saying it is not fair to ‘wave the bloody shirt’ as a campaign strategy. The use of ‘historical memory’ is a dangerous thing according to Payne, citing his favoured sources to call it myth or even political maneuvering.
Payne concludes his book with a denunciation of the ideology of the Left. Again, the term ‘political correctness’ is evoked. ‘Victimism’, he says, is central to this ideology, as is projecting guilt onto selected scapegoats ‘nearly all of whom are dead white males’.
For anyone interested in another portrayal of Spanish History, the multimedia project "De Bàrcino a BCN" under Jaume Sobrequés,
head of the History department at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona is a great alternative. It can be found here: http://www.bcn.cat/historia/index_en.htm
Reviewed by Graham Mulligan
Payne describes the study of Spanish history as problematic compared to other Western European countries. He summarizes the outsiders’ perceptions of Spain, the stereotypes, into four broad groups; the Black Legend stereotype of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the enlightenment second half of the seventeenth century and eighteenth century; the romantic myth of the nineteenth century; and the composite stereotypes of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Black Legend type viewed the Spanish as cruel, blood-thirsty, power hungry; the enlightened view was of a land inhabited by proud, lazy, unproductive people full of hollow vanity; then came the romantic type, picturesque Spaniards, people of faith and spiritual commitment; this is followed by the slow-to-modernize and politically stunted modern era, a Spain different from the rest of Europe.
Payne’s broad ranging analysis touches on the conflict or contrast of the two dominant cultures of Spain, the Castillian elite tradition featuring the serious, sobre, austere and calculating person, full of gravitas and dignity on the one hand, and the popular Andalusian, brave and frivolous, cheerful and lower class, on the other.
In the chapter on Spain and Islam, Payne laments the loss of half a millennium of Western Civilization and Latin Christendom due to the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711. His depiction is of jihad as a constant feature of Islamic culture resulting in a frontier between two civilizations, “hostile and violent but also permeable”. The perception of an ‘Oriental Spain’, unique in the West, is questioned by Payne. He asks ‘how much of an influence did the Muslims have on Spanish culture, society and institutions?’ The most important consequence, he says, was ‘to confer on Spain a historical role of frontier and periphery’.
In the final chapter, entitled ‘Controversies of History in Contemporary Spain’ Payne focuses his attention on ‘political correctness’ as an ideology dominant in the 1990’s. By this he means the ‘deconstruction of previously dominant paradigms, replaced by a contradictory combination of new political dogmas that coexist with radical subjectivism’. He opposes the elevation of race, class and gender in university studies of History, calling it ‘cultural Marxism’. The result of this in terms of Spanish history is a focus on the regions of Spain rather than on a national History of Spain. He goes on to decry the manner of historical research with regard to the Civil War and the Franco Regime. Payne argues for a ‘Spanish Transition’ to democracy ‘from the inside out’. By this he means peacefully evolving from an authoritarian regime to an egalitarian and democratic regime. This requires rejection of the politics of vengeance. He points to the political Left in contemporary Spain, saying it is not fair to ‘wave the bloody shirt’ as a campaign strategy. The use of ‘historical memory’ is a dangerous thing according to Payne, citing his favoured sources to call it myth or even political maneuvering.
Payne concludes his book with a denunciation of the ideology of the Left. Again, the term ‘political correctness’ is evoked. ‘Victimism’, he says, is central to this ideology, as is projecting guilt onto selected scapegoats ‘nearly all of whom are dead white males’.
For anyone interested in another portrayal of Spanish History, the multimedia project "De Bàrcino a BCN" under Jaume Sobrequés,
head of the History department at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona is a great alternative. It can be found here: http://www.bcn.cat/historia/index_en.htm
July 20, 2016
A large portion of the book was dedicated to solely explaining Payne's own tale rather than that of Spain.
The novel was written from a rather biased perspective, even to the point where it detracted from the actual content. Especially in regards to the Spanish Muslims, many of the facts were inaccurate. It is true that Al-Andalus was not a utopia, however, there were many aspects of the period which were entirely disregarded. Al-Andalus is considered a sort of golden age by many renowned scholars and the impacts still exist in Spain today, contrary to what Payne claimed. The region was flourishing, quite ahead of its neighbors, complete with vast trade networks, technological studies, countless scientific innovations, and innumerable mathematical discoveries (mainly in medicine, algebra, and astronomy). The Muslims did study the notes of Classical Roman and Greek scholars, but that was not their sole source of contribution. The Spanish language was impacted by Arabic, as well as the architecture (Examples of Moorish architecture still stand in Spain today such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba and the Alhambra Palace), literature, poetry, other visual arts, music, and dance. Many of the Romani people residing in Spain were indeed Muslims from the Middle East and/or Africa, as they were not exclusively from the Indian subcontinent. For a majority of the Muslim rule, the Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived in relative harmony under the various rulers.
I have visited Spain and extensively explored Granada and other regions of Andalucía. Even today, there is still a large population of Spaniards that not only speak Arabic, but also read and write the language. Many homes also have Arabic inscriptions on the doors. I spoke with many locals who told me that they still have crucial impacts in Iberia.
The manner in which the conflict was discussed came across as very opinionated and even somewhat racist. Payne failed to maintain a neutral point of view at this particular section. When discussing the basic teachings of Islam, Payne proved to be ignorant and fell prey to popular misconceptions. He was also quick to point out the flaws of the Muslims which did exist, but nowhere mentioned the similar vices of other religious groups, such as Christians and Jews (e.g. The Crusades). In addition, Payne did not mention many pivotal female figures in Spanish history.
The organization of the chapters was very illogical and haphazard, often becoming anachronistic or leaving out essential details. The author also frequently interchanged "romantic" and "Romantic," which do not denote the same meaning. A number of similar inconsistencies can be found throughout his work. It also seems evident that Payne did not research quite as extensively as would have been expected of such an esteemed historian. A sizable portion of his historical account is inaccurate, superficial, or simply lacking necessary cultural relevance. The number of sources used in writing the book was very limited, and it appears that as a result the author primarily included information that was false and drew upon stereotypes and misconceptions, rather than facts.
The novel was written from a rather biased perspective, even to the point where it detracted from the actual content. Especially in regards to the Spanish Muslims, many of the facts were inaccurate. It is true that Al-Andalus was not a utopia, however, there were many aspects of the period which were entirely disregarded. Al-Andalus is considered a sort of golden age by many renowned scholars and the impacts still exist in Spain today, contrary to what Payne claimed. The region was flourishing, quite ahead of its neighbors, complete with vast trade networks, technological studies, countless scientific innovations, and innumerable mathematical discoveries (mainly in medicine, algebra, and astronomy). The Muslims did study the notes of Classical Roman and Greek scholars, but that was not their sole source of contribution. The Spanish language was impacted by Arabic, as well as the architecture (Examples of Moorish architecture still stand in Spain today such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba and the Alhambra Palace), literature, poetry, other visual arts, music, and dance. Many of the Romani people residing in Spain were indeed Muslims from the Middle East and/or Africa, as they were not exclusively from the Indian subcontinent. For a majority of the Muslim rule, the Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived in relative harmony under the various rulers.
I have visited Spain and extensively explored Granada and other regions of Andalucía. Even today, there is still a large population of Spaniards that not only speak Arabic, but also read and write the language. Many homes also have Arabic inscriptions on the doors. I spoke with many locals who told me that they still have crucial impacts in Iberia.
The manner in which the conflict was discussed came across as very opinionated and even somewhat racist. Payne failed to maintain a neutral point of view at this particular section. When discussing the basic teachings of Islam, Payne proved to be ignorant and fell prey to popular misconceptions. He was also quick to point out the flaws of the Muslims which did exist, but nowhere mentioned the similar vices of other religious groups, such as Christians and Jews (e.g. The Crusades). In addition, Payne did not mention many pivotal female figures in Spanish history.
The organization of the chapters was very illogical and haphazard, often becoming anachronistic or leaving out essential details. The author also frequently interchanged "romantic" and "Romantic," which do not denote the same meaning. A number of similar inconsistencies can be found throughout his work. It also seems evident that Payne did not research quite as extensively as would have been expected of such an esteemed historian. A sizable portion of his historical account is inaccurate, superficial, or simply lacking necessary cultural relevance. The number of sources used in writing the book was very limited, and it appears that as a result the author primarily included information that was false and drew upon stereotypes and misconceptions, rather than facts.
November 16, 2013
This is not a bad book. But it isn't a great book. Payne walks us through his perspective, as a scholar, of the Spanish national history. His treatment is very broad and pertains as much to the "what does it mean" and "how does it compare to X" as it does "what happened?". I tend to prefer that the author tell me about the later and in so doing give me a window into the former without necessarily framing such ideas explicitly. In contrast, Payne takes the scholar's approach. Nevertheless, there are many sections worth reading and contemplating. He discusses the formation of Spain from many diverse and ill unified regions and shows how the current, modern state continues to behave as such while its analogs, Great Briton, France, Germany, and forged a (more) centralized identity. He also spends a great deal of time on Franco, describing his attitudes, development, and legacy. This is not book built on the craft of writing, but it does offer a thoughtful historical analysis.
June 9, 2011
I decided to read this because I'm going to Spain on a holiday and wanted to know more about the country. It is by a very academic historian of modern (Fascist) Spain, and is written in a style more akin to that of a journal article than a long history for public consumption (he frequently discusses individuals that even a well-educated non-specialist would not know, with little or no introduction, as though he were talking about Oprah or David Beckham). It is interesting and informative, and includes a chapter on how he became a Hispanist that is long and drawn out but still interesting, but not exactly what I was looking for. There may be better books out there, but I only looked at what was available on kindle.
November 2, 2016
Almost a history of Spanish History. I wanted a little more of a traditional narrative. Still, a lot of interesting stuff; especially strong on the Civil War and Franco era. Disappointingly little reference to the empire-colonial periods.
December 30, 2014
Not as much Spanish history as personal history of he author
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