Synopses & Reviews
Review
"The book's six chapters deal with the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Spain was the largest and most important political entity in much of the world and, with Venice, the most widely discussed, feared, and studied. Pagden focuses on how the perception of the Spanish Monarchy changed in the writings of political theorists who concentrated on the Italian territories and on the New World (including Bolívar). Spain, once admired as a powerful, universal entity, gradually became accused of being a despotic and restrictive force. By the mid-18th century, even Spaniards had become painfully aware of the great cost of maintaining their empire. The book is clearly written, skillfully documented, and interesting." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
From the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, Spain was regarded as a unique social and political community--the most exalted, the most feared, the most despised, and the most discussed since the Roman Empire. In this important book, Anthony Pagden offers an incisive analysis of the lasting influence of the Spanish Empire in the history of early modern Europe and of its place in the European and SpanishAmerican political imagination.