The present edition is a reprint of that of 1950: five chapters on the relationship between the Spanish character and Spanish history. An intelligent introduction by Walter Starkie compares Menéndez Pidal’s “mood of detached inquiry” with the style and mood of other essays since the Idearium español of Ganivet (1898) and the Psicología del pueblo español of Rafael Altamira (1902). Starkie places special emphasis on those of Ortega y Gasset.
Unlike Américo Castro, for whom the history of Spain does not begin until the advent of Castilian hegemony, Menéndez Pidal and the ethnologist P. Bosch Gimpera (whom he quotes on p. 97) perceive a feeling of solidarity among the varied peoples of the Iberian Peninsula at least as far back as the Roman period (e.g., pp. 78-9). As “a born disciple of Seneca” (Ganivet had previously suggested the heritage), the typical Spaniard is said to have lived always in “Material and Moral Austerity,” which is the title of the first chapter. The distinguished philologist and historian believes that their austerity may explain “both the collective abnegation displayed by the Spanish people in various circumstances, and during whole epochs of their history, as well as their notorious indifference to the mismanagement of the vital affairs of their country” (p. 20). Chapters II and III, “Idealism” and “Individualism,” discuss, with appropriate examples, the impact of these thoroughly moth-eaten traits on the course of events up to the time of Philip III.
It is in the final two chapters—“Centralization and Regionalism” and “The Two Spains”—that Don Ramón displays best his capacity for cultural synthesis and analysis, as well as his sharp insights into some of Spain’s most influential personalities. In Chapter V (“The Two Spains”) he traces the continuing struggle from the Middle Ages to the Civil War (1936-39) between the forces of tradition and progressivism—a struggle between “the two sons of Oedipus, who would not consent to reign together and mortally wounded each other” (p. 141).
