Product Description: This book acknowledges that the reader of a novel looks at and sees the page before they begin to read any text placed upon it. Thus, any disruptions to how a traditional page 'should look' can have a large impact on the reading process...read more

Simon Barton provides an up-to-date analysis of the historical development of Spain from its origins to modern times. As Spain has become firmly integrated into the political and economic structures of the European Union, the long held notion that the country's "historical destiny" has been somehow out of step with those of its neighbours no longer seems valid. Barton probes the extent to which Spain should be regarded as an exceptional case and provides a clear and balanced account of its strikingly rich and diverse history.

This book makes available, for the first time in English translation, four of the principal narrative sources for the history of the Spanish kingdom of León-Castile during the 11th and12th centuries. The four chronicles were all composed in an unprecedented surge of Spanish historical writing between c.1110 and c.1150. Three of them focus primarily upon the activities of the kings of León-Castile as leaders of the Reconquest of Spain from the forces of Islam, and especially upon Fernando I (1037-65), his son Alfonso VI (1065-1109) and the latter's grandson Alfonso VII (1126-57). The fourth chronicle is a biography of the hero Rodrigo Díaz, better remembered as El Cid, and is the main source of information about his extraordinary career as a mercenary soldier who fought for Christians and Muslims alike.

Product Description: "Conclusions are usually considered guesses" Henry S. Haskins, American writer in Meditations in Wall Street Students' minds, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, soon become stale when faced with lectures or even not so large textbooks...read more