Barry Hatton has been a foreign correspondent in Lisbon for more than twenty years. He co-authored a biography, in Portuguese, of Portugal's first woman prime minister, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo.
"A unique book... The Portuguese: A Modern History is a personal
perspective from someone who deeply understands the history, the
people and the culture of a country full of contrasts and
contradictions that has so much to offer. This informational and
entertaining account of Portugal, old and new, is a required
traveler's companion book."
Portugal is often forgotten when talking about Europe's great
powers. The Portuguese: A Modern History speaks on the history of
this strip of land to the west of Spain and its impact on the
modern world. With a language that is widely spoken around the
world, the small country has had an eventful history tells the
unique history of the country which has included coups, an unusual
relationship with its only neighbor in Spain, and its role in the
cold war. The Portuguese is a fascinating study of a major yet
relatively quiet in international affairs, highly recommended."
...this book, a mixture of history, tour guide, and national
character analysis, is clearly a labor of love.
The question posed by the history of Portugal is, How could a
nation fall so precipitously from glorious empire-builder in the
vanguard of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century age of discovery
to poor backwater of Europe, languishing outside the sphere of
international influence? The author, a Lisbon-based English
correspondent, rests his answer on years of studying Portuguese
history and the Portuguese national character. Affection for and
sober views of his subject impart a geniality and balance to his
account of the development of the Portuguese nation, and his book
itself answers the need for a good general history for lay readers.
What compelled the great overseas Portuguese discoveries is
addressed, after which Hatton identifies the conditions that
undermined Portugal's new wealth gained from colonizing enterprises
in Africa, Asia, and the Americas and that, ironically,
inexorability to the nation's decline. The long dictatorship of
twentieth-century strongman Antonio Salazar, as well as recent
diplomatic and economic situations, is studied alongside such
cultural traditions as fado (the national music) and the zesty
Portuguese cuisine.
The Portuguese: A Modern History responds to an urgent need for an
informed layman's book on the most updated vision of contemporary
Portugal available outside of the tourist guides. It is
well-written and accessible to a general audience, with an
easy-going, fluid style and some moments of very insightful and
academic rigor. The success of the book is in its combination of
personal experiences with a host of varied and rich examples from
the journalistic, to the literary, critical, and social. There is a
love for country- in this case, an adopted homeland- projected
throughout the book, tempered always by a realistic sense of
self... the beauty of The Portuguese: A Modern History is found in
its fluid prose, the acumen of the author's historical and social
perspective, and the personal example of a long-term foreign
resident's individual experience, which gives the book its true and
touching uniqueness.
This brief history of Portugal attempts to not only illuminate the
high points of global exploration and empire that most readers are
familiar with but, in an examination of the social history and
character of the nation, to discuss the factors that have led to
its relative poverty and isolation in relation to modern Europe.
Working both chronologically and thematically, the volume examines
Portugal's medieval history, the age of exploration, twentieth
century dictatorship, a democratic revolution as well as its food,
music and defining national characteristics. The work includes
several black and white photographs as well as recommendations for
further reading. Hatton is a journalist who has worked as a foreign
correspondent in Portugal for over twenty years.
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