Ever since the publication of his book, España en su historia, in 1948 and its subsequent revisions and translations, Américo Castro’s interpretation of Spanish history, especially for the medieval era, has been the subject of much discussion and debate. Now offered for the consideration of the reader are two books, the one containing thirteen essays by Castro himself on a variety of literary and historical themes, and the other, a collection of fifteen essays by his former students and friends assessing the significance of his achievement.
This review may properly begin by discussing Castro’s own contributions in An Idea of History. Divided into four parts (Cervantes, Spain in its History, Comparative Literature, An Idea of History), the book includes essays written between 1924 and 1967, though most appeared after 1940. Those relating to historical themes and interpretations will be of most interest to the readers of this journal. Included are “The Meaning of Spanish Civilization,” “The Problem of the Renaissance in Spain,” “Empire: The Golden Years,” “The Spanish People,” “The Millenium between España and Español,” “Description, Narration, and History,” and “The Historical ‘WE’.” As in his books, Castro emphasizes the importance of the convivencia of Christians, Muslims and Jews during the medieval centuries as having had a decisive effect upon the formation of the Spanish people. From this interrelation of castes derive the intensely religious outlook of the Spaniards and their lack of interest in the abstract, pure reason, mathematics, and natural science.
Castro objects to Toynbee’s theory of challenge and response and also repudiates the impersonal approach to history that stresses the importance of climate, terrain, economic conditions and so forth. While one can certainly agree that the person counts and that individually and collectively persons are responsible for what happens in history, it is foolish to dismiss these environmental factors which, whether we like it or not, have a great deal to do with our particular morada vital, our historical dwelling place. Other generalizations also raise questions in the reader’s mind. Reflecting on the statement that the Christians “absorbed the Oriental feeling that nationality and religious faith are inseparable” (p. 188), one thinks not only of the diversity of peoples called Christian and Muslim, but also of the close relation between religion and the state in pagan times and in medieval Europe, as well as the bond between nationalism and Catholicism in nineteenth-century Ireland. The Protestant Reformation was also in part a movement that linked ever more closely state, nationality, and religious faith.
Castro’s attempt to differentiate the lives of the peoples of this world according to whether they merited mere description or narration or, on a higher plane, were truly worthy of history, is unclear. It implies not only that some peoples are more interesting than others, and, therefore, the more to be valued, but also that certain other ethnic, social or religious groups, due to their inherent inferiority, can be given short shrift. Castro also argues that the diversity of names by which the peninsular peoples described themselves in the Middle Ages indicates a lack of any consciousness of unity; the term español, he points out, came into use only in the late thirteenth century as a borrowing from Provençal. This question ought to be pursued further, inasmuch as Archbishop Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, writing early in the thirteenth century, used the term Hispani on occasion to refer to the peoples of the peninsula.
The collection of essays by Castro’s former students and colleagues also deals with literary and historical subjects. The authors are uniformly students of literature, philology, and philosophy; thus, as with Castro’s work, there is little reference to institutional, legal, or economic factors. In addition to a biographical sketch by José Rubia Barcia, the essays by Guillermo Araya Goubet, “The Evolution of Castro’s Theories;” José Luis Aranguren, “A New Model for Hispanic History;” and Julio Rodríguez Puértolas, “A Comprehensive View of Medieval Spain,” are valuable as illustrating his intellectual pilgrimage and outlining the essential elements of his thought. Of particular importance is James T. Monroe’s “The Hispano-Arabic World,” an overview of the development of Arabic studies in Spain, coupled with a recommendation for greater interaction between university departments of Romance and Near Eastern Studies.
All in all, both books are stimulating and suggestive and can only help to deepen our understanding of the Spanish people and their history.
