A Short History of Spain

A Short History

by Mary Platt Parmele

At the time of the sacking of Rome, this Gothic prince fell in love with Placidia, the sister of the Emperor Honorius; and after the fashion of his people, carried her away as his captive; not an unwilling one, we suspect, for we learn of her great devotion to her brave, strong wooer, with blond hair and blue eyes. Ataulf took his fair prize to the city of Narbonne in southern France, and made her his Queen. But when Constantius, a disappointed Roman lover of Placidia's, instigated Honorius to send an army against him and his Goths, he withdrew into Spain, and established his court with its rude splendor in the ancient city of Barcelona. -from Chapter V With a verve and liveliness worthy of a novelist, American writer MARY PLATT PARMELE (1843-1911) put her unique stamp on world history with her series of clever, concise histories, condensed tales of the world's great nations that encompassed the essential facts necessary for appreciating the state of the world as she saw it. With this book, first published in 1898 and updated in 1908, she introduces American readers to the dramatic past of the peoples and nation of Spain. From the "adventurous Phenicians" who put their mark on Iberia as early as 1300 B.C. to the contentious relationship between Spain and the U.S. during much of the 19th century, this is the exhilarating tale of a country newly joined in great friendship with America as the 20th century dawned. OF INTEREST TO: readers of European and classical history Parmele's books available from Cosimo Classics include: * The Evolution of an Empire: A Brief Historical Sketch of France * The Evolution of an Empire: A Brief Historical Sketch of the United States * A Short History of France * A Short History of Germany * A Short History of Rome and Italy * A Short History of England, Ireland and Scotland

Genres: History, Spain, Nonfiction, Historical

188 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

Mary Platt Parmele was an American author and historian.

Mary Platt was born in Albany and educated in New York. Her first marriage was to J. J. Agnew and her second marriage to Theodore W. Parmele. From 1892 she began contributing philosophical articles and short stories to reviews and magazines, and published Kingdom of the Invisible and Christian Science. However, her most successful books were a number of "Short History" books of various countries written in the late 19th and early 20th century. Her "Short History of..." books included France, Russia, England, United States, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

Reviews

[Neli Krasimirova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benimle 6 kere uçağa binen o kısa ve bahtsız metin.
Türkçe'den okudum da kimse eklememiş, benim de kütüphaneciliğim düşmüş, öyle bi edisyon seçtim kendime rastgele.
20.yy başında yazılmış olması elbette onu eskimiş yapmıyor ama perspektifi biraz hristiyan merkezli göründü bana. Sanırım o yüzden de birine laf mı çarpıyor ne yapıyor anlamadığım için uzak hissettim.
Kısa Tarih derken, gerçekten çok kısaya indirgiyor, bazı bölümlerde sadece aile ağacı ve o torun hangi devlette taç giymiş kadar bir okuma sunuyor. Ve fakat ben zaten seyahatime doğru 16.yy civarına kadar chatgpt ile devam edebileceğim referanslar arıyordum, ona da yetti.
Bir aydınlanma olarak: 8.Henry'nin kızı Bloody Mary Katolik Kraliçe İsabel'in torunuymuş :) Şok!

[Jean-luc Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a product of its time with its own set of biases and prejudices. But nonetheless, it gives a great overview of Spain's history up until the book's publishing. It doesn't dwell too much on little and obscure historical details and helps connect the dots that lead to an overall better understanding of Spanish history. Generally, Parmele's accessable writing and style has strengths that outweight any negative if slight issues in the overall narrative. Just keep in mind the time period of publishing and "Great Men of History" focus throughout the book.

[Cidney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dear dear yet another old kindle book which turned out to be dire. I have been doing a bit of housekeeping on my kindle and came across this book from around the late 1910s to the early 1920s. It is billed as a short history of Spain and it certainly was. It spent what seemed half of the book talking about the romans and then moved on to the history of Spain and Portugal. Now I am a latin scholar but this just left me uninterested and well bored really. Not the book for me.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical views of 1898?

Author freebie. Suitable for all ages. Written before the 1900's. The slight differences in spelling and Spanish viewpoint on history is quite interesting. The coverage of the Monroe doctrine and the Spanish American war seems odd.

[Alex Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of the history of Spain even though it was written over 100 years ago, interesting and obviously some views and biases are very much of the time, but an interesting account of Spain up the the 1900s nonetheless.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

poor ! It speaks of its time it is patronising Christian righteous and just doesn't bother with all that much at all !

[Diana Guerra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated and biased.

[F S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining and educational!

[Patricia L. Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good history

Good read. 4 stars. No wonder that part of the world is like it is, so arrested. Europe continues to fall behind at all levels!

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

This probably should have been more correctly titled "A Short Survey of the History of Spain"...and I definitely should have checked the publication date before downloading. I've never read a work of "history" that glosses over so much or contains so many exclamation points. The tone is undeniably paternalistic and patronizing. I urge anyone who has read this book to seek out a more authoritative and genuinely historical work to supplement.

[Daphne Papadopoulou · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was rather disappointed by the book.
First of all, it was supposed to be a history book. And a historian ought never stand in favor or against someone. This book was more like an opinion summary.
Also, facts had been dramatized, which is not the case when writing history books.
In addition, it was very difficult to keep on, and very tiring to read. If you missed a single line or name, you totally lost it.
The only good thing about the book was that it contained some very interesting facts.
It wasn't what I expected when I bought it.

[Matthew George · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is indeed short and consequently lacking in coverage for most of my areas of interest. Almost no mention is made of Aragon or any cultural group other than Castilian. In addition, the book was written over a century ago. The author's feelings toward certain groups and historial figures betrays her era, including her rather positive view of Isabella. Still, it is a very quick read that gives an introduction to Spanish history and for some, that is all that is needed.

[Calzean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written just after the 1898 Spanish-American War, this is one in a series of "short history of" books written by Parmele. As it is a short history it covers a lot of ground and does shows the author's prejudices and biases that were the norm of her day. Nonetheless it was full of quirky stories, very readable and, to a non-academic, a good introduction into the history of a great people.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This “Short History of Spain” briefly looks at the earliest known Spanish times through to 1906.

Mary Platt Parmele whittles through the centuries quite quickly, covering the most notable events in Spain’s history.

[Charlie Byers]

It's an interesting look back at what nonfiction publishing looked like a hundred years ago. I so rarely read anything about Europe written before WWI, I enjoyed the quirks of the author's perspective, too. I wouldn't recommend it as anything other than a curio, but I enjoyed the read.

[Yazir Paredes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book about the history of Spain. One thing to notice is that this book was written c. 1898, so it opens a window of historiography (AFAIK that was it is called). The author recounts history more like it is a story which makes this book easy to read and engaging at the same time.

[Sam Motes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gives a good background into the competing interests that developed the Spain of preWWI.

[António Conceição · Rating 3 out of 5]

Livrinho honesto, já antigo, com uma síntese breve da História de Espanha em tom de relato popular. Vale pela relação final dos reis de Espanha e dos reis visigóticos da Península Ibérica.