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Spain

The Centre of the World 1519-1682

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Spain

By: Robert Goodwin
Narrated by: Jeremy Clyde
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Bloomsbury presents Spain by Robert Goodwin, read by Jeremy Clyde.

In the sixteenth century, the Spaniards became the first nation in history to have worldwide reach; across most of Europe to the Americas, the Philippines, and India. Goodwin tells the story of Spain and the Spaniards, from great soldiers like the Duke of Alba to literary figures and artists such as El Greco, Velázquez, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega, and the monarchs who ruled over them.

At the beginning of the modern age, Spaniards were caught between the excitement of change and a medieval world of chivalry and religious orthodoxy, they experienced a turbulent existential angst that fueled an exceptional Golden Age, a fluorescence of art, literature, poetry, and which inspired new ideas about International Law, merchant banking, and economic and social theory.©2015 Robert Goodwin (P)2015 Audible, Inc. 16th Century 17th Century Europe Modern Spain Middle Ages Western Europe Imperialism Royalty Latin American
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Critic reviews

This is history as it should be but so rarely is. Never, since Richard Cobb's great books on ancien régime France, has an English historian written on the history of a foreign country so much from the inside, with such intense love and flair and intimacy. The result is a gourmet's delight of a book: to be devoured greedily and digested at length and with pleasure
This is a vivid blend of grand narrative and colourful anecdote, written with pace, verve and a sharp sense of time and place. Dr Goodwin has dug deep in the archives, re-read the chronicles and come up with fresh insights that bring the politics and culture of early-modern Spain into a new alignment. A feast for both the general reader and the specialist
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I learned a lot from this book. I really wanted to know more about Spanish history. This covers the period of Spain's golden age, in the 16th and 17th centuries. The book covers many different angles - the succession of monarchs, politics among the nobility, international relations, the relationships between the different kingdoms of Spain, art and literature (this gets covered in a lot of detail), religion (this was of special interest to me). The effects of the discovery and colonisation of the Americas obviously gets a good deal of attention. I've traveled to Spain many times but learned so many things here, I'm excited to go back and be able to look around me and understand better what I'm seeing. Now I want to learn more about the earlier and later periods. Spain is a fascinating country!

Very interesting and informative

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