This book, making its first appearance in English, is a translation of the second Spanish edition of Aproximación a la Historia de España (Barcelona, 1960). The author, Jaime Vicens Vives (d. 1960), examines in his lengthy prologue the condition of historical scholarship in Spain, giving himself a chance to explain and justify his own historical method. He states here that the purpose of writing history is “ to capture the living reality of the past and, above all, the interests and passions of the common man” (p. xix). He expects to achieve this noble ideal by using statistics as the primary instrument.
Within his twenty chapters, some bearing imaginative titles, Vicens Vives does not essay a full account of Spain’s history. Rather he attempts “to sketch, in a very few pages, the fundamental structure of Spanish history” (p. ix). Explaining the main lines of Spain’s past, the uncompromising author stops conspicuously and unfortunately at the eve of the Civil War.
Vicens Vives is above all a socioeconomic historian. Thus familiar topics, such as the economic condition of medieval Castile, the tragic consequences on incipient Spanish capitalism produced by the expulsion of the Jews, and the failure of sixteenth-century Spain to benefit from the injection of precious metals, are treated with concise, brilliant scholarship.
The author favors the name “Hispania” rather than “Spain,” because the former “expresses more adequately the heterogeneous origins of the nation, while Spain is associated with the Castilian-based government developed from the sixteenth century on.” (p. x). He considers this distinction very significant. In fact Catalán regionalism is the only speck that mars his mature and intelligent approach to the history of Spain. His frequent references to Castile’s failures, and Catalonia’s successes, suggest that throughout the history of Spain, Catalonia has been the too frequent victim of Castile’s political and economic villainy. Catalanism, which together with other Spanish regionalisms, has contributed “to disjoint and invertebrate Spain,” as Ortega y Gasset put it, is defined by Vicens Vives as “a movement of youthful optimism” (p. 139).
But in spite of this emotionalism, the book is good and can be recommended. The annotated bibliography is very thorough and helpful. Joan C. Ullman’s translation is solid. Of special merit are the footnotes that she has added to this English edition. The content should give the reader a sounder basis from which to study the history of Spain.
