The New Spaniards (Penguin Politics and Current Affairs) [Paperback]

John Hooper (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Politics and Current Affairs | Publication Date: September 1, 1995

Over 30 million foreigners travel to Spain every year - more than any other country, yet all but a handful see little of the country besides the holiday costas. This book describes the real Spain that has emerged since the death of Franco, a country of immense industrial and cultural creativity, of police trade unions and wife-swapping bars, a federal monarchy with a tax-paying king, a welfare state in which three-quarters of the unemployed do not qualify for assistance. Unlike many books on Spain, this book eschews politics to focus on the society and how it functions. The book won the Allen Lane Award.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Unputdownable . . . A must for anyone . . . who wants to know what Spain is really like. (New Statesman, London)

Hooper . . . not only knows where Spain has been in recent decades and centuries, but he also has an impressively authoritative view of where exactly it is today and where it is headed. (The Washington Post) --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

John Hooper is a journalist whose experience as a foreign correspondent spans more than twenty-five years. He is currently the Rome correspondent for the Economist and the Guardian. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); 2nd edition (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140131914
• ISBN-13: 978-0140131918
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Hooper has been a foreign correspondent for more than 25 years, reporting mostly from the countries of the Mediterranean. Posted to Spain after the death of its late dictator, General Franco, he covered its eventful transformation from a dictatorship into a democracy and developed a deep fascination for the country and its people. He later returned for a further spell as a correspondent in Madrid. The Spaniards, the forerunner of the New Spaniards, won the Allen Lane Award for a best first work. John Hooper is currently the correspondent in Rome of The Economist and Guardian.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly and interesting, August 29, 2002

By 

"cloudia" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Spaniards (Penguin Politics and Current Affairs) (Paperback)

This must be a definitive review of Spanish society and culture in the last half century, and while it's certainly fascinating reading, it is oversaturated. It can be a bit difficult to get through learning EVERYTHING about Spain if you are a newcomer to the topic. The section on the press becomes passionately detailed. Hooper seems to give the names, political bents and histories (behind the scenes and otherwise,) of every newspaper and magazine printed since 1936, as well as statistics about readership levels among various classes and regions over time which he compares to those of Britain and other European countries. Granted the information, with his analysis, does make for a very vivid portrait of the country, but you may feel a bit as though you're being hit on the head with a hammer when he starts doing the same thing in a chapter on television broadcasting. I simply couldn't keep track of the TV stations, and what they were up to, who was running them, how and why. Though I did get the point. Spanish love television, and they don't seem to have a problem with government control of the medium.

On the other hand the chapters on education, the arts, film, and the significantly independent regions of Spain, to wit, the Basque, the Catalan and the Galician regions, were much more breathable, and did fill in many gaps in my understanding,(though there were far too many personalities to keep track of, and all involved in very intricate negotiations,) as did earlier chapters about the general History of the country, and how the conflicts, between the various nations which came to form Spain, still exist today. In the minds of most Spaniards, the formation of Spain as a nation was never a forgone conclusion. And Hooper covers this national psychological fragmentation, and its present day outpourings and consequences, with startling detail.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a masterpiece of perception, February 9, 1998

By 

"dlttant" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Spaniards (Penguin Politics and Current Affairs) (Paperback)

As a spaniard I find incredible merit in this book. It is accurate like no other study (spanish or otherwise) and very entertaining. It has made me understand my country like never before through its very well documented and almost totally impartial overview of the Spain of recent years. Sometimes it takes a certain distance to see the whole picture and not corrupt the reality with stereotypes, myths repeated like mantras or official versions of the facts. For any Spain lover this is -the- book.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY SPANISH SOCIETY, May 12, 2001

By 

JIM SHIVE (BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Spaniards (Penguin Politics and Current Affairs) (Paperback)

I would categorize this book less as politics and current affairs and more as a complete sociological analysis of contemporary Spanish society. The author covers all aspects of modern Spain including its politics, economy, demographics, education, housing, labor, family, religion, and popular culture. The author explains the changes over the past 25 years from the ossified Franco regime to the modern nation involved politically,economically, and socially with the rest of Europe and the world. Very well written and organized with insightful analysis and illuminating explanation of Spanish society and mores.