Spain in America: The Origins of Hispanism in the United States

Setting aside the pastiche of bullfighters and flamenco dancers that has dominated the U.S. image of Spain for more than a century, this innovative volume uncovers the roots of Spanish studies to explain why the diversity, vitality, and complexity of Spanish history and culture have been reduced in U.S. accounts to the equivalent of a tourist brochure.

Spurred by the complex colonial relations between the United States and Spain, the new field of Spanish studies offered a way for the young...