{"id":1891,"date":"2026-01-07T21:40:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/?p=1891"},"modified":"2026-01-07T21:40:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:40:47","slug":"book-review-una-historia-de-espana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/book-review-una-historia-de-espana\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Una historia de Espa\u00f1a"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>Una historia de Espa\u00f1a<\/a> by Arturo P\u00e9rez-Reverte<\/a>

My rating: 5 of 5 stars<\/a> on Goodreads

(English Translation below)

Una historia de Espa\u00f1a<\/em>, resumida en 92 cap\u00edtulos breves dentro de 246 paginas, da la impresi\u00f3n que se tratar\u00eda de un repaso superficial, dada la compleja historia de la pen\u00ednsula ib\u00e9rica en un volumen tan corto. (El uso del art\u00edculo indefinido en el t\u00edtulo sugiere que \u00e9sta no sea necesariamente la historia definitiva, sino quiz\u00e1 una bastante cautivadora.) Empec\u00e9 cautelosa. Encontr\u00e9, sin embargo, que P\u00e9rez-Reverte con su econom\u00eda de palabras va al grano del asunto, siempre volviendo a lo que caracteriza al pueblo espa\u00f1ol (y su relaci\u00f3n al resto del mundo) usando ejemplos de acontecimientos que apoyan su argumento. En un tono informal, a menudo irreverente y mordaz, el autor es a la vez sard\u00f3nico y humor\u00edstico aun describiendo sucesos tr\u00e1gicos.

Conoc\u00eda aspectos de la historia espa\u00f1ola por lo que hab\u00eda aprendido en el colegio y a trav\u00e9s de los a\u00f1os que viv\u00ed en Espa\u00f1a (bajo Franco) con familia\u2014que sufri\u00f3 durante la guerra civil pero que no discut\u00eda pol\u00edtica\u2014y despu\u00e9s en la universidad. Entre los muchos libros que he le\u00eddo sobre Espa\u00f1a, encuentro este conciso y sincero, incluso autocr\u00edtico, en t\u00e9rminos de plantear lo ocurrido objetivamente sin excusas. Explica lo que a Espa\u00f1a la hace distinta a los dem\u00e1s pa\u00edses. Tambi\u00e9n, me ayud\u00f3 a comprender por qu\u00e9 los mismos patrones se desarrollan y salen a relucir vez tras vez durante el transcurso de la historia espa\u00f1ola a lo largo de los siglos. Aprecio que los cap\u00edtulos sean cortos porque hay mucho que digerir y eso me ayud\u00f3 a reflexionar antes de seguir adelante con la lectura. As\u00ed que recomiendo este libro para quien quiera conocer mas a fondo esta tumultuosa y larga historia que, para mi, aclara bastante por qu\u00e9, hasta hoy en d\u00eda, las cosas siguen de cierta manera.

One might think that A History of Spain<\/em>, summarized in 92 short chapters within 246 pages, would be a superficial review, given the complex history of the Iberian Peninsula in such a short book. (The author\u2019s disclaimer is implied in the title by the use of the indefinite article, allowing that his is not necessarily the definitive version, but perhaps a compelling one nonetheless). I proceeded cautiously. I found, however, that P\u00e9rez-Reverte is pithy getting to the heart of the matter, always coming back to what characterizes the Spaniard (and his relationship to the rest of the world), using examples of events to support his argument. The author\u2019s tone is conversational, often irreverent and scathing, while sardonic and humorous even when describing tragic events.

I was familiar with aspects of Spanish history from what I learned in school and throughout my years living in Spain (under Franco) with family that had suffered through the Civil War but never discussed politics, and later on in college. Among the many books I\u2019ve read about Spain, I find this one sincere, even self-critical, in terms of discussing what happened objectively and unapologetically. It explains what sets Spain apart from any other country. It also helped me understand why the same patterns keep emerging time and again throughout centuries of Spanish history. I appreciated that the chapters were short because there\u2019s a lot to digest, and that helped me reflect before reading on. That said, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more in depth about this long and tumultuous history that, for me, reveals quite a bit why, even today, things continue on a certain way.

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Una historia de Espa\u00f1a by Arturo P\u00e9rez-Reverte My rating: 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads (English Translation below) Una historia de Espa\u00f1a, resumida en 92 cap\u00edtulos breves dentro de 246 paginas, da la impresi\u00f3n que se tratar\u00eda de un repaso … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,150,241,142],"tags":[163,242,243,148],"class_list":["post-1891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-culture","category-book-reviews","category-history-of-spain","category-spain","tag-book-reviews","tag-history-of-spain","tag-perez-reverte","tag-spain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Arturo-Perez-Reverte.jpg?fit=411%2C520&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1891"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1895,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions\/1895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}