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A History of Spain and Portugal
Book by Payne, Stanley G.
406 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 19, 2018
Link to my review of this book:
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https://flhwnotesandreviews.com/2018/...
June 8, 2017
Payne has written a history of Spain and Portugal which really is quite the pain to read.
I just had to make that pun. But seriously, this was not very enjoyable. At least, the first ten or so chapters weren't. I only read the first volume, which takes the history of the peninsula to the year 1700, and I doubt I'll be reading volume 2. Out of all the talents this author may have, bringing history alive is certainly not one of them. Indeed, his best talent seems to be to make history seem as dead as possible.
Once he came to the Catholic Monarchs, the exploration and empire-building of the Castilians and the Portuguese, and that general period, the book picks up quite a bit. Had the entire work been simply on those topics, I may be giving this an additional star in its rating. But, unfortunately, such is not the case.
I learned a fair amount about the history of Spain, but most topics are only superficially glided over, and some (judging by Wikipedia's articles, for otherwise I am mostly ignorant on pre-empire Spain) important topics were barely mentioned at all. It seemed, all told, to be very hastily written.
I just had to make that pun. But seriously, this was not very enjoyable. At least, the first ten or so chapters weren't. I only read the first volume, which takes the history of the peninsula to the year 1700, and I doubt I'll be reading volume 2. Out of all the talents this author may have, bringing history alive is certainly not one of them. Indeed, his best talent seems to be to make history seem as dead as possible.
Once he came to the Catholic Monarchs, the exploration and empire-building of the Castilians and the Portuguese, and that general period, the book picks up quite a bit. Had the entire work been simply on those topics, I may be giving this an additional star in its rating. But, unfortunately, such is not the case.
I learned a fair amount about the history of Spain, but most topics are only superficially glided over, and some (judging by Wikipedia's articles, for otherwise I am mostly ignorant on pre-empire Spain) important topics were barely mentioned at all. It seemed, all told, to be very hastily written.
February 25, 2023
This book is seriously dry. I somehow made it through most of it, but towards the end I began skipping lots of pages. Way too much economics, too much agriculture, not enough interesting reading. I love history, but this book is as dry as they come.
August 19, 2011
it is hard to find a comprehensive history of spain written in english
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews