Customer Reviews

A Concise History of Portugal (Cambridge Concise Histories)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have been to Portugal many times and know quite a bit about the country's culture, it's people and history. I have to say that I must agree with most of the criticism that previous reviewers have written.

It is hard to believe that Birmingham, despite his vast experience with Portugal and things Portuguese, could have produced such a mediocre book. Parts of it are almost fictional. Too much of the information Birmingham presents is just plain wrong, particularly regarding Portugal's colonial empire in Africa. After reading this I got the distinct feeling that Birmingham has no real depth of knowledge about the Portuguese people, let alone the history of Portugal.

I am quite familiar with Portuguese history and am truly surprised by many things Cunningham has written. He is essentially accurate about the country's early history (say BC to through the 14th century), after that, there are numerous holes and distortions. Some of what he has written is actually insulting to a remarkable group of people. The Portuguese deserve much better.

If you are interested in learning about Portugal there are some excellent history books available, auch as: Livermore's, A New Hisory of Portugal, and all of Boxer's books.

Birmingham's book is close to being dust bin material!! I can just imagine what his upcoming book on Portugal and Africa is going to be like!!

In my view, this history of Portugal gives a distorted image of the country. It stresses the country's problems and plays down its achievements. The book pictures Portugal as a country struggling to establish a place on the world scene; modernise its economy and society; and secure political stability (!). In contrast, one can not find much on Portugal's gold age of the voyages of discovery and a worldwide maritime empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In fact there is not much on the first centuries of Portugal as a country. The whole book is rather biased, giving a one-sided and not particularly flattering picture of Portugal. I much prefer the more objective and well-balanced approach of 'Portugal: A Companion History, by Jose Hermano Saraiva et al.

I have read many general and specialized historical pieces on Portugal. This book is by far the worse I have run across.

Cambridge University Press should be ashamed of publishing something as mediocre as this.

I can not help saying that this is not a very good Book, I'm Portuguese and i have read many History Books and when i grabed this one and read it i was very disapointed to read many incorrect facts. I hope that in the fucture my country will be treated has it deserves.

Anticipating a trip to Portugal, I picked up this book to prepare myself figuring this would give me a bit of background on the country.

First, I was suprised with the things I learned of its governmental and social history. It is not the typical western European country, but nonetheless has held its own. I did not realize that Britain played such a big role.

Although I learned a bit about the government and economy (and through this, a little about the population), I did not see much about the humanities and arts. The author does mention that as the country was getting gold from its colonies, it built some beautiful buildings. Nothing else was covered. I would like to know more about the arts, and this book does not give that.

The book is also not the quickest read. Given that it is a history, I would like things to be in chronological order. Birmingham will follow some actions a few decades forward to show the outcome, but then jump back to where he was without comment. This makes the flow a little distracting. I found myself jumping back a few pages to try to follow the narrative. Not the easiest of tasks.

If you know nothing about Portugal, this book will give you a brief glimpse which will get you on the right path to understanding Portugal, but it by no means gives you the most authoritative or the most readable history.

After reading "A Concise History of Portugal" I have to wonder why such poor material is allowed to be published. This book is so full of distortions, primarily regarding the sociology of the Portuguese within Portugal and the colonial empire, that it borders on fiction. Birmingham's research was acomplished through very faulty secondary sources, and it clearly shows. I have a substantial knowledge of Iberian (and Portuguese) history, and can safely say that certain sections of Birmingham's book (particulary with respect to social groups and ethnicity) are crude opinions presented as fact. This person is a respected historian? Maybe he is writing about the planet Pluto, not Portugal? That's it, he misspelled Pluto, slight mistake., My, My, standards certainly have deteriorated.

If you are interested in the history of Portugal, this is one book you should NOT buy. I have read numerous books about Portugal's history, and have studied it as well. I don't know where the author of this book got his information from. It's totally inaccurate, with his opinions or observations stated as fact. What was he thinking? If I could give it less than one star, I would. It deserves nothing. Simply horrible, inaccurate, useless...

Birmingham's Concise History of Portugal is concise, straightforward, and well-illustrated. There is little else to be said in its favor. Portugal's distinctive national character--so different from that of neighboring Spain--owes much to the circumstances of its past. Until I read this book, it had not occurred to me that any author could make Portugal's history sound quite so dull.

Birmingham plods through a great deal of information about Portuguese history, but he has no gift for storytelling, so the facts spill onto the page in a disconnected heap. The reader learns next to nothing about such fascinating characters as the sixteenth-century king Sebastian and the seventeenth-century brothers Afonso VI and Pedro II, and important female characters are in most cases not even identified by name. Moreover, Birmingham provides little historical context, so it is often difficult to discern how the events he mentions related to larger trends in European and world history. Birmingham addresses some of the major themes of Portuguese history, such as the tension between centralized and aristocratic power and Portugal's special relationship with England, but he skims over other crucial topics, such as the creation of Portugal's far-flung colonial empire. The coverage of the Portuguese people's ethnic and cultural origins is weak, as is the coverage of religion and geography. The book conveys no sense of the Portuguese national character.

I do not recommend this book. It might be useful as a quick reference, but it will not give you a nuanced understanding of Portuguese history, nor is it enjoyable to read.

Cunningham is a an exceptional scholar, and he has made a name for himself in African studies. His book on Portugal, however, is lacking. Some portions are not fully based on verifiable fact. Several of his opinions are quite streched, and he is anthropologically incorrect when he refers to the Portuguese as a race. The Portuguese are not a race. They are a PEOPLE within the caucasian race.