Spain

A Unique History

By: Stanley G. Payne

Narrated by: Kevin Pierce

Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

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

©2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System (P)2012 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“An excellent, balanced discussion of important controversies.” (Juan Linz, author of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes)

“Concise, engaging, and above all scholarly, this volume offers a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of Spanish history.” (Julius Ruiz, author of Franco's Justice)

“Thoughtful yet provocative; indispensable reading for everyone.” ( CHOICE)

the pronunciation of Spanish names is horrendous

I am amazed that the narrator chosen for this book is someone without a clue of Spanish pronunciation. The proper name narration is cringe worthy, and it makes listening of the book unbearable.

Not really history at all!

What disappointed you about Spain?

This book NEVER took any shape -- and I listened to the entire work on a long drive. It starts with an hour and a half of the driest academic biography that even the author's mother would not read. Then it rambles on, about various topics, in no clear order. Not a single story or anecdote of any character ever appears. The author clearly KNEW such tales, but he talks in such an unfocused way, you don't even know the era or region under discussion. Only when he got to Franco did any narrative emerge and even that was minimal.

What about Kevin Pierce’s performance did you like?

Unlike a number of reviewers, I think the narrator was outstanding. He read complex academic writing in a patient but not monotone voice. Perhaps his Spanish pronunciation could have been better, but there was so very little in Spanish, that didn't matter.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The author does have original thoughts and surely was a great professor. The author should have worked with an editor, or even family members, to make this engaging. This work smothered any insight into what should have been fascinating.

Any additional comments?

I wanted to like this. I wish I had heeded the many warning reviews.

An Academic Commentary on Spanish History

Any additional comments?

This is a good book, for a certain audience. The author is clearly an excellent historian and does a beautiful job laying out a broad history of the country of Spain. However I would term this book more of a commentary on history than an overview or introduction. I am a lover of history with a reasonable general background on most subjects, but I found myself often lost while listening to this book. He does not really lay out the subject in any comprehensive, chronological, or explanatory way, but essentially provides a commentary on Spanish history. If you know little about Spain, this is not a good place to start at all. It would be interesting for a person who already has a strong basic background in Spanish history. Also, if you are picky about proper pronunciation of Spanish names, then you will be disappointed. Furthermore, the first chapter of the book is really more of an autobiography of the author's professional career. It certainly seems his due after a long and distinguished career, but I doubt many will find it very interesting.

Not really what I was looking for....

I was looking for a basic history of Spain. The book started with hours of the author basically telling the reader about himself, seeming to justify his authority to write the book. He then goes into exhaustive details of Spanish history, presupposing that the reader already has more than a rudimentary knowledge of the subject. For example, he often drops names of obscure people or refers to obscure events as if they were common knowledge to the average reader. Finally, the book doesn't cover its subject in historical order, which in the author's defense was probably not his intention, since he couldn't do so and cover the subject the way he covered it. Bottom line. this is more of a book for readers with more than a casual knowledge of Spanish history looking for greater detail to fill in gaps and answer questions they may have on the subject.

Odd but very interesting

The reader didn’t know how to pronounce Spanish personal names and place names. The author’s extensive autobiographical information contributes to his credibility.

A good review

Without going into details the book gives a nice overview of major stages in Spain development. An interested reader can look further for a more detailed description of the events. But from the standpoint of universal history this review is fair and balanced.

Ideological axe-grinding and incompetent narrator

What would have made Spain better?

A narrator who knows how to pronounce Spanish words would have greatly improved this book. Also, less background on why the author decided to study Spain -- it was a very uninteresting hour.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stanley G. Payne again?

I've heard that he is an authority on the comparative history of fascism, so I would give that work a chance. But the amount of ideological axe-grinding he does in this book was a little obnoxious. He couldn't get through the Visigoth period without lashing out at multiculturalists.

How could the performance have been better?

The number one criterion for a good narrator for a book on the history of Spain is being able to pronounce Spanish-language words. Pierce did not meet that criterion. Every time he had to say a Spanish-language word or name, it was cringeworthy. He seems like he would be okay for other audiobooks...but he was not the right person for this job.

Any additional comments?

I wish that I could get my credit back.

Rambling. Uninformative. Terrible writing.

The author tries to convey his obsession with Spain, but only shows his obsession with himself. Codified narcissism. Have listened to two hundred+ books and this was the worst. I didn't finish the other two terrible books on my list, but this was so bad I listened to all of it out of morbid curiosity to see if it would have redeeming value at all. It had some interesting points, but definitely not worth reading. The author spends the first 102 minutes! talking about himself and how he came to write the book: uninteresting self-aggrandizement. Then he, finally, launches into his analysis of the history of Spain. However, its just a rambling patchwork of apparently poorly researched conclusions. Wish I could see the footnotes. He seems obsessed with unnecessarily impressing the listener with his vocabulary, but many of the technical terms are subject to different interpretations, so the resulting book is confusing on almost every page. Wasted credit.

Waste of money

This is an astonishingly bad book. It rambles over time in no special order, with long discussions on historiography but without giving more than a sketch of what actually happened. I love history, but I couldn't finish this one.

Not really a “history of Spain”-misleading

Instead of a history of Spain, the book begins at great TEDIOUS length with a completely unsolicited autobiography of the author, which I defy anyone outside of the author’s immediate family to read without skipping large sections. Seriously, who cares?
It gets no better when the alleged “history” begins. Instead of a history we are provided with an argument about the author’s opinion of Spanish history and almost NO HISTORIC details. I mean ZERO details or context.
I guess we’re expected to already have an infinite knowledge of the history.
This is stunning because his introduction seems to criticize polemics in Spanish history and yet that’s all his book is.
For anybody who is really looking for a history of Spain, this book is useless. It’s false advertising.
Nor am I remotely convinced of his argument.