Customer Reviews

The End of the Spanish Empire, 1898-1923

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Sometimes the problem with an history book, is that the author is too much of an expert on the subject and therefore isn't able to present facts in a way that 'normal' people would be enamored by the tale. I'm not saying that subjects have to be 'dumbed down' to the level of a graphic novel, but you should understand the level of knowledge that most people have of your subject. The example in this book is Balfour's constant reference to the "Carlist" group and the Carlist actions of the early 19th century. Unfortunately, most people are not conversant with Spanish history, and it would have made sense if he could have described the events and ideology at least once in the book, but he didn't. (I did get a fast explanation in Wikipedia.)

A lot of the book is like this and takes for granted that you already know the subject. If I knew the subject I wouldn't be reading this book. If the book was meant to be a text to be used for teaching about the era than it is sorely lacking in background information. There is little discussion of battles, the Spanish-American War (referred to as 'The Disaster' is dealt with in five pages. The struggles in Morocco are mentioned in passing but only as to the loss of life by the army.

Mostly this is a discussion of the political failings of the government and how there was never a coherent program to revitalize the county after The Disaster. Governments come and go so fast that a three year government is referred to as the 'long government'. Most of the time they last less than eighteen months. The leaders of the different 'parties' seem to come and go for no discernable reason and little explanation is forthcoming. To me, at least, much of the book is muddled and incoherent without any consistent discussion or description of the underlying forces that motivated politicians and the military.

Zeb Kantrowitz