Customer Reviews

Spain: The Root and the Flower: An Interpretation of Spain and the Spanish People

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If one is looking for a brief overview of Spanish history, art, and literature then this book might just be what is desired. While it does not go into great depth, it does provide the reader with an overall basis of beginnings of the Spanish peoples, the civilizations that invaded the Iberian pennisula (Visigoths, Romans, Moors), and describes each of the monarchs.

In addition, the author does provide an insight into the greater known artists of Spain and some of their more well-known works. He also explains the literary talent that Spain has contributed to the world.

The is a good, if not in depth, summary of the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War and what it meant politically to the country. The author covers a good deal of the Franco era, possibly because he was in the country during that time. Still, it provides the reader with a conceputalization of the period. I was a little disappointed that the author did not bring out the less valued parts of Franco's Spain. By reading this book one would think Franco was very nearly a saint. Still, I was thankful for the knowledge of international affairs during the Franco era, and America's reaction (or should I say non-reaction) to it.

The last chapter, "Spain Today", I feel is totally irrelevant. I would recommend not bothering to read it. This book was first written in 1963, and the last update to it was 1984/85. As the author describes "Spain Today" it is 20 years ago. A lot can, and does, happen in 20 years and I feel this chapter should either be updated or completely left out of the book. If one is reading this to educate themselves on current mores and values in Spain, this is not the chapter to gain that information. Because of the dated material in the final two chapters, which I feel are a waste of a reader's time, I felt I had to give this book 3 stars.

If one is looking for a book to provide a brief, easy to read history of Spain, including artists and authors, then this might be a worthy read. If one is looking for the modern day Spain, then this book is not of much use.

This history book has several things going for it. First, it's eminently readable; the author is a skillful writer who keeps you thinking about the subject matter, not his own style. Second, the reader's interest is doubled by the author's constant interweaving of the development of Spanish character into the history. Thirdly, the author always attempts explanations of the deeper historical processes at work, keeping the (interesting anyway) history from devolving into just descriptions of events, kings, and battles.

The middle third of the book is devoted to explicating the Spaniard's eight-hundred year struggle to expel the Moors. Memorably pointing out that the Moors had superior economic strength, superior technology, vastly greater learning (including science, of course), the author stresses the key factors about Spanish character that enabled their ultimate triumph. The situations at almost any time during this period were never simple, of course---sometimes groups of Moors and Christians would be allied against other groups of Moors and Christians, and there would also be periods of relative peace on the penisula.

I wish that all history books would use John Crow's book as a model.

If you are ignorant of Spanish history, this is not the place to start. This is, as the title suggests, an "interpretation" that assumes a fair amount of previous knowledge. However, if you want to understand why Spanish people are the way they are today, this is the best book I have ever read for that purpose. I am an American who has lived in Spain for 18 years and am married to a Spaniard, and while I don't know if all the facts are correct (as disputed by a previous reviewer), I can say with assurance that the "interpretation" of those facts rings true. I gave this book to a German friend who has also lived here for many years, and he described reading it as, "a light bulb going on in my head". Be prepared for a sad story, though; since the glorious medieval times when cities like Cordoba where far more enlightened than any other in Europe, the story of Spain has been one of many missed opportunities. It is true that this book was last updated in 1985, and therefore does not capture present-day Spain. If you are looking for an excellent book on contemporary Spain, I can suggest Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Secret Past

Well researched and readable account of Crow's 30 year love affair with Spain and it's not always lovely history. His even handed assessment of the Spanish Civil War and it's uneasy legacy in modern Spain reads makes the events unroll like a Greek tragedy.

As with any form of portraiture, this work has elements of the author's own personal viewpoints and his passion for knowing the country he discusses.

I picked this book up at the library because it was briefly unavailable from Amazon. I see it is available again. It is an excellent book, an excellent introduction to the history, culture, art, thought and people of Spain. It is the kind of history I enjoy reading. I can't stand it when a professor of history writes a book and completely inundates the reader with facts, dates, figures, statistics. This is the history that is life, that breathes.

This book has blood, life, beauty in it. You can feel the pulse of the world he writes about it. There is history here but enough to satisfy (and of course the historian scholar will mostly likely scoff at the lack of dates and the author's personal recollections of his times spent in the countryside and cities of Spain - no matter).

This book has been a pleasure to read. I looked forward to reading it, to absorbing it in small increments. Crow writes with great sympathy for his subject. He doesn't romanticize his subject, he feels a certain compassion for the Spanish people and their struggle to find a common welfare in government and social policies. He also presents a very approachable glance at the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War.

This book is more of a work of literature than a mere text. It reminds me of when books were written for the sake of exploring a world. I avoid history texts because they're often soulless, written by clumsy historians, placing emphasis on the importance of fact over interpretation and not finding a balance between the two.

If you want to understand a country and its people beyond the dates and facts and figures, this is the book. This is the book everyone should read before visiting Spain, simply to appreciate their delicate, diverse and deep history. This book has impacted me and I'll most likely not find something as moving and fascinating as this one.

A very detrimental book. Amazingly wrong point of view.
To say that "the Spaniards spring from an Afro-Semitic race" is just a wrong start.
To say that the Arabs were in Spain for about 800 years...is not to have any idea about the history of Spain!!. In reality, the Iberians could have been today's Basques, incoming from the Georgia plateau, as of today no one is certain about the origins of the Iberians. The Basque were never touch by the conquest of the Arabs, nor the Galicians, nor the Cantabrians. In Catatonia the Arabs were expel by the Franks by the year 977 (that is 220 years after their incursion in this region). Valencia was liberated by 1248. Only in Granada did the Arabs lived for around 800 years (most of them of Syrian descent, is that north Africa?) . Spain is a country of different ethnicity's, some with direct Celtic ancestry like the Asturs, Galicians and Cantabrians, some like the Catalans with Frankish descendants, and some, like Extremadura or Andalucia from Mediterranean past, and still some like the Basque, with an uncertain past, but a unique history, never subdue neither by Visigoths, nor Romans, nor Arabs.
I have a PHD from the University of Salamanca, and I could not disagree more with John A Crow. I found many inaccuracies in this book. If you would like to learn about the true history of Spain, or just learn about the life and culture of Spain be aware of this issue. Crow writes out of his personal opinion...A very dangerous thing to due. I could write a book about the US base in my opinion and I'm sure I would offend many people, and at the same time I would probably be inaccurate. Crow refuses facts over his own ideas. I could give you a list the inaccuracies (many of them!!) but I have nor space nor time.
Take a trip to Spain (south, north, east and west so as to appreciate the differences of the people and the culture and the history) and read some good books about the history of Medieval Spain (Joseph F. O'Callahan, B. Netanyahu, are good books), and learn the true history of this unique land.

As someone who is 1/2 Spanish and lived there for five years in La Mancha, I can say that this book is a great book about the Spanish people and the great history that Spain has. While there are some facts that are untrue (the origin of the Iberians for example), the book is an overall joy to read. Crow captures the sorrows and pleasures of Spain and the Spanish people like no other author has before or since. I recommend this book for introductory Spanish history and then read The New Spaniards to pick up where this book left off, the end of the Franco regime up to modern day. Please everyone, if you have the means, come and visit Spain and see for yourself how wonderful this land really is.

Filled with not-so-well-known aspects of a fascinating and colorful people and the interlopers who have added to its culture. Completes coverage of many areas.

If you say that until this day NOBODY is sure of the origins of the Iberians, then how can you wholeheartedly dispute his claims. I think what he writes is just like every other history book, unless you were there you can't really know what is completely the truth. There are grains of truth and grains of personal opinion in every history book and historical opinion, including your post. Also, many books have been written that the Moors (and I don't say Arabs because the Moors were not Arabs) were in Spain for about 800 years. You can read how they were described by nearer contemporaries than us including Shakespeare's Othello. To dispute his claims is disputing many claims from many books.

My wife enjoyed reading about Spain, especially after we got back from our trip to Spain a month before. She learned a lot more of the political intrigue, too. Me...I bought the cookbook, "Cuisines of Spain" from Amazon, and I'm enjoying making the paella and other rice dishes. Thank you Amazon for having the best discount mall in the state of Florida.