Spain, Europe, and the 'Spanish Miracle', 1700-1900

by David R. Ringrose

Overview

In his important new study, David Ringrose reexamines the history of Spain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He challenges the conventional ways of framing that history, questions the importance of the empire for peninsular Spain, and suggests that some of the seemingly dramatic modernization of the nineteenth century was already under way in the eighteenth. In addition, the emergence of a governing elite is placed in the context of family and patronage networks. This challenging book will change our understanding of the history of modern Spain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521434867
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/29/1996
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.29(h) x 1.34(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. The Problems of Perception: 1. Perceptions and perspectives; 2. Focusing the problem; 3. Glimpses of the Spanish economy; Part II. Peninsular Spain and a Changing World: 4. The Indies trade and a peninsular economy to 1763; 5. Indies trade and peninsular economy between 18th and 19th centuries: reform, crisis, adaptation; 6. Trade, economic expansion, European context; 7. From enlightenment to commodity: redefining resources; Part III. Alternative Responses to a Changing World: 8. The Mediterranean urban system: trade, hierarchy, trends; 9. Cantabrian Spain: from Guípuzcoa to Galicia; capital city, markets, and Castillian interior; 10. Towns and cities in Andalusia; Part IV. Networks, Provincial Elites and Central Authority: 11. A narrative context; 12. Basic institutions of political and economic life: family, town, office; 13. Office, state, and local elites, seventeenth-nineteenth centuries; 14. Conclusion: trends, events, perceptions.

Editorial Reviews

"...a splendid book....a view of the country's history that should transform historiographical debates....The book merits a wide professional readership..." American Historical Review

"...this remarkable study of 18th- and 19th-century Spain offers fresh, indeed innovative and controversial interpretations....An excellent analysis of political networks, provincial elites, and institutions..." Choice

"...nothing in Spanish historiography tackles the broad range of issues addressed in this book. Spanish Miracle will appeal to European, not just Spanish, historians and may interest a wider audience of history aficionados. I can think of no better introduction to the historical development of Spain than this superbly written, eminently readable tome." History

"In this pathbreaking book, Rongrose not only analyzes a range of empirical evidence, but he urges a redfinition of the way in which scholars examine Spanish economic history." Carla Rahn Philips, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

From the Publisher