Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees

by Peter Sahlins

“Brilliant. . . . This fascinating exploration through three centuries of the frontier is rounded off with a perceptive and balanced appraisal of the nature of national identity within the context of the Pyrenees. . . . A study which is exciting, learned, and thought-provoking, a splendid example of interdisciplinary history at its best.”—Times Literary Supplement

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Spain

376 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 1989

About the author

Peter Sahlins has taught History at UC Berkeley since 1989. He is the author of several books, including most recently 1668: The Year of the Animal in France (New York: Zone Books, 2017). His work has spanned France and Spain from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, focusing on questions of boundaries and identities; immigration, naturalization, and citizenship; the history of forests and forestry in France; and most recently, human-animal relations. He regularly teaches the introductory European History survey course (Europe Since the Renaissance), as well as advanced and graduate courses in a wide variety of subjects. Since 2013, he has directed the Interdisciplinary Studies Field in the Undergraduate Division.

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It might look like a stuffy academic case study, but don't let that scare you off. Really enthralling study of the formation of national identity and a territorialized conception of state sovereignty in one particular valley on the French-Spanish border which was divided pretty arbitrarily in half in 1659. Traces the development of the meaning of the border from the point of view of both the centralized government and local inhabitants. Really fascinating ideas about opportunistic identity as the "mask that sticks to the skin," classification and identification as complex constructs that appear through the joint actions of the state and local communities (not imposed from above). Really recommend this to students of anthropology, history, nationalism, sociology, identity, or really just anyone as baffled as I am by pictures of what's going on at the US-Mexico border. Only faults I would mention: Catalan identity is given short shrift in the service of a greater binary narrative of French/Spanish oppositional identity construction, and I wish he had spent more time on the function of the border as a religious symbol marking out the sacred from the profane, as well as religious languages of resistance.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I "heavily skimmed" this, but I didn't just sit down and read the thing. The nitty gritty details aren't really relevant to my studies of MY border, the northeastern US/Canada border, it's more the general ideas. The general ideas are quite useful. For example, this 17th/18th century obsession with the idea of "natural frontiers" that sounds logical if you don't think about it too long, but inevitably falls apart at the local level. If you are dealing with one river, sure, but trying to make a mountain range into a natural frontier and dealing with dueling watersheds, etc, just gets chaotic. Also this idea of concentric circles of identity (which I'm pretty sure Sahlins got from another historian, I just can't remember who). People on the border might have a strong regional identity (Catalan, for example) and they might think of themselves as part of that group first, but that doesn't necessarily prevent them from using a French or Spanish identity as the case arises. That was the main takeaway for me from this book - it's all about what identity one needs to use to get things. When groups are either complaining to the state or asking the state for something, that's when they create an identity as "Spanish" or "French." You need to, if you want the state to do anything for you. So national identity comes out of these local disputes and local class interests. When a rich person has property on either side of the border and wants to have it both ways, the common folk revolt. We are French, they say, and this rich person isn't like us. When two villages are in competition, even if they are in close proximity, it is easy to try and pull the "We are Spanish, they are foreigners" card. I like this idea of common people using national language to try and get what they want.

[Daniel Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Väldigt intressant bok om utvecklingen av nationell tillhörighet och identitet i en liten dalgång mellan Spanien och Frankrike under 200 år. Ger stor inblick i hur materiella och lokalt rotade intressen kring klass, skatter och bråk om var gränsen för egendomar trumfar religiösa, språkliga eller kulturella gemenskaper när det kommer till nationell tillhörighet.

Också intressant att se hur snabbt invånarna i dalgången glömde bort sin fientlighet mot ”den andre” på den andra sidan av gränsen i dalgången efter gränsdragningens förtydligande och fastställande på slutet av 1800-talet.

[Thomas Ray]

Library-of-Congress DC611 P985 S24 1989 College Library Rm 1191 and Memorial Library

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Describes the history that produced the mutant, porous border between "France" and "Spain" but lamentably undertheorizes the Catalan border which is hardly drawn in the same place.

[Soha Bayoumi]

A very interesting book on the social history of nation-building at the borders...

[Kimiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Well written, and really challenged my conception of "natural" borders, and the effect such political lines can have on border peoples.