Portugal Books

I picked up this book b/c it was on Future Tense. I'm a fan of that imprint and thought I'd take a gander. The short stories in this book are fantastic. Some folks rarely pull off the sort of character development needed to make a short story compelling, but Gurba does this very well. She leaves you wanting more but in a good way.

The novella is the big hitter in this compilation. A very funny and rather gut wrenching story about a beautiful woman who suffers from OCD and Tourettes. The lack of victimization in this story, coupled with more of a reconciliation of being creates an incredibly emotional journey. One of the more redemptive and exciting books I've read all summer. Cheers to Ms. Gurba on her first published book. And a big thanks to Kevin for making this happen.

I bought this book based on its reviews here and the fact that it came up as a recommendation based on my love of Shirley Jackson and Mary Gaitskill. But it's nothing like them, except for maybe parts of the tale White Girl (the best part of this book.) I hate saying this, but I suspect a lot of the reviews here are friends or family of the writer.

If you don't mind A LOT of pop culture references and the lack of a real plot, you might enjoy this book. The lesbian themes were interesting but not quite as explored as I would've liked. The novella made a huge leap (for no apparent reason) cutting out the character's college life. It basically read like an over-indulgent memoir with bad grammar throughout. I expected it to be a little more self-deprecating since it was written in the first person.

However, I couldn't put it down. I read it straight through. So many times you'll be sick of how "sexy, cool and unique" the characters are (it's basically all the same girl throughout) but it still has a wonderful flow. It's not literature, but it's a great young adult read. The constant pop culture references really turned me off - it's too dated. It kept bringing up awful Hot Topic images.

Still, I read it entirely which I NEVER do with books I dislike. So I liked it, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to friends. The story White Girl is really lovely. The book needed a better editor though - a lot of paragraphs need to be reconstructed and bad grammar never works unless in dialogue.

I'd like to see what else this writer does. This really felt like a first book but she's got a lot of potential! I'd definitely pick up anything I see her name on in the future and hope to see a little more growth and exploration.

I can't explain how impressed I was with this book. It was really an extraordinary read... Gurba's talent as a writer is apparent as these stories flow effortlessly into each other. These are some finely crafted works; this book continually placed me so strongly under it's spell that i found myself reeling at the conclusion of each story. I've heard that it's being taught in schools and I can understand why - I wanted to lend this book to all of my friends and anyone who has ever considered writing as a profession.

I just finished reading this. All of the stories have a common thread and each story made me laugh as well as wonder about the author's sanity. The short stories are interesting but it is the novella that truly captured me. Once I got to the novella, I had a hard time putting the book down. It showed me lifestyles that I know little about. The interesting part is that all of the different lifestyles are being lived by one person. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"Dahlia Season" is brutally honest and raw. The book contains both the title novella, as well as a collection of the author's short stories...each and every one of them forced me to step outside of my stereotypical white girl world, and into the cultural chaos of these characters.

While the short stories are incredible, the main focus of the book is the novella, "Dahlia Season." The main character, Desiree Garcia is a Mexican American mess...she knows she is different, and as a result she is basically fly paper for freaks. Desiree is a goth, a lesbian, and harbors some pretty unnerving thoughts. In attempt to right her thinking, her parents send her to a Catholic high school--when that doesn't work, they ship her off to Mexico to stay with relatives. While each of these experiences teaches Desiree some valuable life lessons, they also reconfirm her notions of who she truly is. Throughout the novella we are introduced to several just as bizarre characters; Desiree's friends make up a portion of the "freak" circle, and each are intriguing and entertaining in their own rights.

Gurba's writing is brutal and sometimes painful. Filled with the confusion that is the teenage experience. On top of just being a teenager, Desiree is a lesbian, and we later find out, mentally ill. She suffers from a plethora of symptoms, most real, some exaggerated...and all making her daily life an adventure.

I couldn't put the book down...I felt like I was right there with Desiree and her friends and family. The writing is accurate and real, and will force you to reexamine your own world..

Reviewing a book that i received, have not read it, but it's in great condition and shipping was very quick. Thank you.

I have really enjoyed using this book. I am in several spanish classes at college and I have found that Fuentes' book is an easy read; you are able to understand and visualize some of the history of Latin America. The structure of the book is less like a textbook and more like a novel, the facts are all there, they are just presented in a different way, a more subjunctive way. I encourage those who need a good resource on the history and culture of Spain and Latin America to consider this book.

Fuentes dice en el Espejo Enterrado que Rocinante es una yegua y no es cierto. Reto al mismo Carlos Fuentes a que me lo demuestre.

Los espejos simbolizan la realidad............. De los espejos de obsidiana de la urbe totonaca de El Tajin a los espejos ibericos de Cervantes y Velasquez, el de la locura y el del asombro, un intercambio de reflejos ha ido y venido incesantemente de una a otra orilla del Atlantico. (Excerpted from the back cover of the book).

Such reflejos are the subject of the book, which is listed as an essay (ensayo) among the works of Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, but which should really be classified under the subject of History in that it traces the development of the Spanish speaking people from prehistory to modern times.

The book consists of 18 chapters as follows: "La Virgen y el Toro" (the Cretan and Greek roots); "La Conquista de Espana" (by Cartage and Rome); "La Reconquista de Espana" (by the Barbarians, later by the Moors); "1492: El Ano Cruzal" (the expulsion of the Moors by the Catholic kings, and the discovery of the New World); "Vida y Muerte del Mundo Indigena" (the natives of North America, Cortes and Moctezuma); "La Conquista y la Reconquista del Nuevo Mundo" (the conquest of the New World, the new towns, the universities, the new religion); "La Era Imperial" (the problems with the administration of the New World, the defeat of the Spanish armada by Francis Drake); "El Siglo de Oro" (literature and art in imperial Spain - Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca, Velasquez, Tirso de Molina, Francisco de Zurbaran); "El Barroco del Nuevo Mundo" (problems and unrest in the New World, Aleijadinho, Juana Ines de la Cruz); "La Epoca de Goya" (Melchor Gaspar de Jovellanos and Francisco de Goya y Lucientes); "Hacia la Endependencia: Multiples Mascaras y Aguas Turbias" (the unrest among the Creoles and the desire for independence); El Precio de la Libertad: Simon Bolivar y Jose de San Martin" (the expulsion of Spain from Latin America); "El Tiempo de los Tiranos" (Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina, Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia in Paraguay, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Benito Juarez and Maximilian and Carlota in Mexico); "La cultura de la Independencia" (Latin America looks back at Spain while neglecting the local Indians and blacks, Argentine gaucho Jose Hernandez and his poem Martin Fierro, Cuban writer and patriot Jose Martin, Mexican cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada); "Tierra y Libertad"(The Mexican revolution of 1910, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa); "Latinoamerica" (the general situation and problems of modern day Latin America); La Espana Contemporanea" (the general situation and problems of modern day Spain); La Hispanidad Norteamericana" (a very interesting chapter providing statistics on the total number of Hispanics as well as the number of Hispanic illegals in the United States, describing the invaluable contribution of the Hispanic people to the US economy and more).

El Espejo Enterrado may be listed as an essay, it may be classified as a history book, yet it is more than that, because Carlos Fuentes is more than an essayer or a historian. He is a multifaceted artist who sees and describes reality in a more comprehensive as well as captivating manner than the average essayer or historian would. He does not just give the description of the events that shaped the history of the Spanish speaking people, he makes them interesting, he makes the reader want to learn more. For example, by discussing the individuals whose thoughts and actions influenced the decisions of the Spanish speaking people (e.g., Jean Jacques Rousseau and Napoleon); by relating the major events from which those related to the Spanish speaking people developed (e.g., the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the American Revolution); or by describing the works of the Spanish speaking artists who reflected the periods during which they lived (e.g., Don Quixote, La Vida Es Sueno, Las Meninas, La Maja Desnuda. Hence with this book, the reader will learn more than the history of the Spanish speaking people, he/she will meet (again) some of the great thinkers of the Western world, he/she will be reminded of the history of the Western world, he/she will learn about the products of the most illuminated minds of the Spanish speaking world. He/she will also discover about many word origins, (how many among you reading this review know the meaning of the word Saragoza, the origin of the name Malinche, the identity of the woman from whom California got its name, the reason why they call the turkey guacolote in Mexico). And he/she will acquire an awful lot of useful information which would otherwise not be easily available all in one book, for example, the real significance of Goya's Saturn Devouring his Children".

This is a book that, once started, cannot be put down. A book that many will wish will never come to the end.

Available in Spanish, as well as English with the title The Buried Mirror - Reflections on Spain and the New World, a must for anybody who is interested in history, in the works of the creative mind (including its author's) and the origin of things. Perhaps a must for just anybody interested in expanding his mind, whether or not of Hispanic descent.

"EL ESPEJO ENTERRADO" ES UN LIBRO QUE NO PUEDES DEJAR DE LEER. TIENES QUE TOMARTE UN TIEMPO PARA LEERLO Y APRENDER DE O RECORDAR LA HISTORIA DE TODO AMERICA.

A great resource for driving in Spain. Durable book that gets thrown around in a car and spilled on, but survives! Clear format and large print, even down to the confusing Spanish road numbers. Might have been helpful to have some explanation about those multiple road numbers on each highway, but we eventually figured it out.

We used these maps to travel from Lisbon to the Algarve in the south of Portugal to Seville, then onto Granada, and back to Lisbon. They are wonderful! They are excellently detailed & yet easy to read. Buy them if you planning on driving in Europe. You will not regret your purchase.

If you will be driving around Spain and/or Portugal this is worth getting

I took a week long trip to Spain this summer and this atlas was extremely helpful. Getting around using the backroads in the area my family was from was easy due to the detail of the atlas. I did come across some new highways that weren't on the map yet, but I can't really fault them for that. Description of roadsigns and symbols in the back was also helpful.

We used this atlas for a 2 week road trip through Spain, and found it to be very helpful. I had also mapped routes using various internet sources, and having this atlas was better as we could change our minds and pick other routes, if we felt we wanted to. Sometimes the numbers of the highways didn't match exactly, but that can happen at anytime, anywhere. Maps and atlases are frequently outdated as soon as they are printed. But this one gives the best information available here in the States, I think.

There aren't really any good maps of individual cities in the atlas, which might be a drawback. I did need to get individual maps of cities separately, which wasn't that big of a bother for us but it is something to consider. Overall, a very good road atlas if contemplating a road trip to Spain/Portugal. Easy to read and a good size to handle. Granted, there were two of us, so one driving and one navigating probably made it a bit easier to read the atlas!

The New Spain is a great guide toward learning about and understanding everything related to Wine in Spain! If you are interested in learning more about Spainish Wine this is the book to get!!

Spain is fast becoming a premium-wine producing country. Critics like Robert Park and Stephen Tanzer have taken notice, giving mid-priced wines 90+. This book is not a buying guide but a straight-forward overview of the various regions of Spain. For those unfamiliar with regions like Toro DO, Yecla DO, Jumilla DO, Radford provides both insight into the climates, soils, history and some of the top-wine producers of each area, from Riax Baixas in the north to Jerez and the Canary Islands in the south. If wine is your profession or simply your pleasure, this book is a great reference. I work in retail and have taken courses through WSET - this book is my constant companion whether I'm buying or selling. "The New France" and "New Italy" are equally excellent.

This is a ok overview of spanish wine regions. However, it fails as a buying guide; there is no insight into "hot" areas, where producers are producing exceptional wines at very attractive prices. Areas such as Montsant, Almansa, Bullas, Gigals, Valdeorras, Ribera del Jucar are doing great things, but you would never know it, based on this book, unfortunately.

Very good photos, commentary, wine routes suggested (tho I did not take one)significant properties listed, very good maps. They don't come any better, tho Spain is changing so fast I hope an update will come out.

I'll be brief: there is no finer in depth book about Spanish wine on the market to date. I cannot recommend the books published by Mitchell Beazley highly enough. I have found them indespensible for my studies towards my Master of Wine.

Pros: beautiful photos, in depth regional info, producer bios.
Cons: you need a 'decent' wine education before tackling this one.

Instead of referring to different contemporary perspectives, why not read from one who had the opportunity of viewing the barbarity of the Spaniards in person. Oh, but let us not be biased; let us instead, reflect upon the opinion of a Spaniard. Also, lets make sure this Spaniard is educated... how about a Spanish Priest; surly he would not invent stories to defame his own country. For what purpose would such an individual do that? At any rate, if you doubt him, you might as well doubt everything you read. If you don't already know who it is that I am referring to, let me state here: Bartolomé de Las Casas.

We don't need another book to underscore the atrocities that took place. Certainly Spain was not the only nation in Europe to commit horrible crimes in the Americas, but for any author to attempt at palliating those crimes by comparing them with the crimes of other nations is simply shameful. Also, to look for the acts of violence committed by the Native Americans toward Europeans with the intention of balancing the popular belief in the guilt of the Europeans, is about equal to a lawyer in court pointing out that a rape victim did in fact strike back at the criminal.

VERY PROFOUND AND EXCELLENT HISTORY OF THE SPANIARDS IN NORTH AMERICA. AMAZING STORY !!! WORTH EVERY PENNY !

BUY AND FIND OUT !!

This is an excellent study of Spain in North America, well written and superbly organized.

This is an excellent history of the Spanish colonial experience in North America. Like most of us, I grew up thinking of England when the word "colonial" comes around. The Spanish coolonial history is just as fascinating and far more romantic than their counterparts. Weber's history should be required reading in our universities. Anyone remotely interested in colonial history will find this a pleasant diversion.

Frontiers, in the plural, might be better. While many of us may call to mind Santa Fe, or the Alamo, the Spaniards were settled in, or exploring or defending, many places in North America. Only tenuously connected to each other, these frontier areas included Florida, the Gulf Coast, Texas, New Mexico, California and Arizona.

While New Mexico was reachable from Chihuahua, the Llano Estacado separated it from Texas. The Sierra Madre, water supplies in Mexico and such, separated New Mexico from the late-settled California and the even more tenuous hold on Arizona, not to mention that it was easier to get to California by sailing from Mexico out into the Central Pacific then taking trade winds back ... even from the Philippines. Apaches and Yaquis separated Arizona from California.

Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast and Florida weren't settled or explored from Mexico and so the first pages of their Spanish history were different.

As with all the European powers, dealing with the various Indian tribes was a large part of colonization. Weber takes a careful look at this, shows how the interaction went both ways and how the Spanish at least come off better in many ways than the English. That is also to say they come off better than the English's Anglo-American descendants as well.

Weber shows how Spain was less exterministic and more flexible in dealing with Indians than Anglos were, while doing so on a shoestring.

None of the Spanish frontiers in today's United States had anywhere near the degree of colonization that the British colonies had; for that matter, the Spanish would have settled for the number of Frenchmen who went to Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. Meanwhile, outside of New Mexico and Florida, by the time the Spanish got into various parts of North America, the empire's administration, military prowess and economy were all on the decline.

Yet, Spain persevered.

Read how, and what it does, could and should mean for our country today, in this very informative book. Ironically, I bought it at Coronado National Memorial -- one of Spain's first crossings into today's United States.

This guide is small enough to fit in a purse or pocket and full of lots of helpful information. I especially liked the foods section. It was easy to discretely pull it out while we were at the tapas bars and restaurants and figure out what was on the menu. My husband who knew no Spanish before our trip, used the helpful phrases verbatim, whereas I found the short dictionary in the back useful when a I couldn't remember certain words - they were almost always in there. There is even a Catalan and Basque phrase section. Highly recommended if you don't speak fluent Spanish.

My girlfriend and I knew zero Spanish before travelling to Spain. Thanks to this guidebook we were able to get by in all the situations that we encountered. This book is absolutely essential for those who don't know the language, since Spaniards will warm up to you a lot more if you try to speak in their language. My only regret is that there wasn't enough on Catalan, but that is to be expected. Great product.

You send me a message saying the whole order (Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, was undeliverable.
Why?

I just returned from South America (Bolivia and Chile). This book was great to have with me over the past month. There are many instances where it came in handy. It is easy to pack and to carry. I recommend it to anyone traveling abroad to a Spanish speaking country.

Bought the book before a vacation in Madrid. It was very useful and well organized. When I needed to look up a phrase, I found the book very easy to use. It gave more information that I needed!

Detailed, great maps, good information...5 stars

I highly recommend the paella at Set Portes.

I just got back from Spain, and this guide was amazing. I highly recommend you check out their picks for top restaurants, I think they were very well chosen.

The maps were excellent, and very helpful. This is the guide to take to Barcelona!

We just returned from 4 days in Barcelona and this book was the bomb! I bougght four books on Spain because I couldn't decide,and the Time Out guide was by far the most useful and informative, and comprehensive book. It was indispensible. In fact, when we were in other cities in Spainwe were wishing that Time Out had also made guides for those cities too. All the restaurants we ate at were amazing, and for the most part the info was accurate. The book has lots of color pictures and gives details on how to get where you are going. Oh yeah, the BEST, most USEFUL thing was that they had a bunch of different maps in the back of the book, and on any particular entry (say, a restaurant), they would give the page and the coordinates of where that restaurant could be found on the map, as well as the closest metro stop. It was great! Highly recommend this book and will be sure to buy other Time Out guides next time we travel.

The British Time Out guides are always a trip essential: Their expertise is how to spend your time when you are not in the museum or staring at the major landmark; the eating/drinking/shopping/arts/entertainment portion of your trip. Especially music and nightlife, dance clubs or bars, restaurants and shopping, or where to meet/watch people, what to enjoy, their information in invaluable. This 7th edition is updated from last year's and they really have taken the time to update it, adding or dropping places reviewed, updating the reviews on the places carried over. They didn't just copy and paste a bunch of last year's material, they really work hard to make it good. Plus, this edition is currently $4.00 less than last years! The descriptions of the main attractions and the side/day trips are very good. Although not as pretty and picture heavy as other guide books, if you could only take one guide book for a stay of more than 3 or 4 days, this would be the best choice. Maps in the back are very useable, altogether a really great book.

The Barcelona city information is thoroughly updated every year; the restaurant picks are naughty, opinionated and don't sound like a PR pitch; the writers are not afraid to point out any pitfalls or negative aspects of any particular experience; the various maps are clear; the guided city walks take all the effort out of exploring the city and the style in general is witty, erudite and a pleasure to read. What more can I say? Time Out Barcelona has no equal.

I picked up this book almost at random to write a book review for my Tudor-Stuart English class. The book is written in a narrative format that really helps you follow the story - for an avid fantasy book reader, it came across almost as a real book and not just a dry history text. The book has a real narrative feel that gives it a lot of strength. Recommended if you are interested in the Armada, or historical naval battles.

The story of the Spanish Armada, as told by David Howarth, is built from his research of original Spanish archives. Apparently, he may have been the first to do so. Other historians had relied on English sources. That principal fact makes the story more compelling than other histories of the event.

Secondarily, Howarth reports on innovations and errors. For example, the Spanish invented the "convoy" and convoy tactics. This prompted the English to invent the "wolfpack." Maritime historains will be interested in the accidental development of these strategies.

Business management students will get to study the consequences of central planning and micromanagement by the Spanish King. Howarth does a good job contrasting the Spanish model with the decentralized style of the English.

A good read on several levels.

This wonderfully descriptive book by the English author, David Howarth, is well worth reading if you have a desire to learn about the Spanish Armada and the "Enterprise against England". Although this book, `The Voyage of the Armada' (1981) is not as detailed as `The Armada' (1959) by Garrett Mattingly, its still a great story and well worth the time to read.

By all accounts this story of the enterprise is told as it was seen through the eyes and experiences of the Spanish soldiers and sailors and is very well done in that regard. Using first hand accounts found in numerous Spanish letters and reports, many previously not utilised before, the story comes alive and gives you a real feeling and understanding of the participants, many who did not survive to tell their tale.

One aspect of the book that I found pleasing was that the author took the story past the battle with the English fleet. David Howarth provides the reader with an account of what happened to the ships and men who actually survived the "dash" up the Channel. Those who were shipwrecked along the Irish coast were subjected to even more terror than they had experienced so far and very few survived.

The real hero of this story is Medina Sidonia, the commander of the Spanish ships, and I found myself wondering could anyone have done any better under similar circumstances? This is a great story with an exciting narrative and although it only runs to 250 pages (hardback edition) I found I came away with a better understanding of what happened and why. This book would be a great companion volume to `The Armada' by Garrett Mattingly but can stand alone as a decent and well presented account of the "Armada".

Howarth is a great story teller for historians. In this book, he shows the Spanish side led by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. The Duke was a very courageous though inexperienced sailor. His commanders were also very able. The problem was the campaign as formated by Philip II. Philip micro managed but at the same time did not present what the ultimate objective was to be. Would he name himself King of England? One has to fill in the blanks, and Howarth does a good job of giving details of what Philip intended to do.
Unlike others, Howarth details why the Spaniards were the underdog in this campaign. The English ships were sleek and maneuverable, whereas the Spaniards were clumsy. The numbers were not as great as one supposed. All told, the Spanish were the underdogs since they were operating far from base. The result were running battles, with the English besting the Spaniards. On the trip around the isles, poor weather, lack of provisions, and unseaworthy vessels killed more than the battle itself. Howarth does a great job in describing this agony of sailors and soldiers seeking home, but ultimately killed in Ireland.
The only wish for this book is that Howarth could have expanded his study. This is an interesting subject, but the book was short.

Howarth, an English historian, takes a look at the Spanish Armada debacle from the Spanish point of view, using letters and documents culled from the Spanish national archives. He awards first prize for the disaster to King Philip, a first-rate numbskull whose foolhardy strategy and tactics doomed the fleet before it ever left port. Thanks to him, Spain has been a second-class power ever since. Duke Medina Sedonia, fleet commander, gets far more sympathetic treatment than his boss: despite having not a shred of military or nautical experience, he displays heroic courage and equanimity in the face of near hopeless odds. Besides these two, Horwath delves deep into the personalities of many other key participants on both sides, including Drake, Frobisher, the de Valdes cousins, Recalde, and the energetically inactive Duke of Parma. The narrative is compact yet sweeping: in a mere 250 pages, Horwath gives good account of the religious and political motives behind the mission, the military strengths and weaknesses of both sides, tactical and strategic developments in sixteenth century naval warfare, and the misery endured by the sailors and soldiers of the Armada. He describe of the various fates of the doomed Spaniards with heart-wrenching passion, but includes some rousing tales of survival and escape that truly lift the spirit. Well done!

Beeing a director of a museum in Spain I felt I must buy this book. After reading it, I must say that Beyond the Prado is a partial book; relating to a part only ( a part of Spain and a part of museums), and also inclined to favour just one point of view (about Spain and about museums). Poor.

Beyond the Prado is required reading for anyone who cares about the national unity debate that is taking place in Quebec. Holo provides a sensible blueprint for Canada by elucidating the process through which Spain has used museums as institutional structures in the rebuilding and reshaping of a democratic nation. Make no mistake, Beyond the Prado is about more than art and museums. It is about nurturing and protecting parts of diverse and local cultures in order to preserve and reshape whole identies of nations. And let's all face it! This isn't a problem that is unique to Canada or Spain. Reversing the trend of disintegrating national entities is going to be the major political challenge of the next century.

As frequent visitors to Spain, we were fascinated by Holo's account of the political and emotional impact of that country's museums. Every collection one tours grows in stature and significance. This book is a must for anyone interested in the larger, cultural role of museums.

Beyond the Prado surprised me because it was not a traditional art museum guide book! It made me understand that museums are integral parts of a society and are connected to politics in ways I never considered before. Fascinating especially was the chapter on military and church museums. To think that allowing pictures of Franco himself might encourage progressive thinking actually blew me away.

I found Beyond the Prado fascinating in that it showed me a Spain much different from the one I visited in 1960. Those memories are of a militaristic, totalitarian society. Through Dr. Holo's book, a modern Spain emerges that encourages political and cultural democracy as reflected in the policies of the country's museums. Dr. Holo's book is a thoughtful, analytical thesis on Spain's museums and their place in the grander context of a country's political philosophy. What a fascinating way to explore history and a country's attempt to satisfy both an agenda of regional integration and regional diversity. Brilliant! Coming from the province of Quebec in Canada, where a serious power struggle is occurring between the people of French and English descent, I will follow closely Spain's gallant attempt to encourage diversity and regionalism and yet retain political integrity. Spain is a place I want to travel to once again. My next visit to its museums will be with a new perspective and a much deeper understanding as to their significance than I had prior to reading this book.

It would be helpful for historians to write something of their own philosophies and belief systems and values at the beginning of their writings, to aid us evaluating where they are coming from.

What I see is that Parker tries to evaluate El Prudente based upon Parker's apparently modern, non-catholic, and generally unspiritual worldview.

If I were to try to find Philip's grand strategy, I would look at these as starters:

He attempted to introduce mathematics training in towns throughout Spain, and supporting all manner of scientific thrusts. This was part of his strategy to enlighten his realms and people.

He supported Saint Teresa of Avila and such movements as hers for intense spiritual virtue in the monasteries. This was part of his strategy to spiritualize and enlighten his realms and people, and combat mindless materialism.

He worked to bring justice and end crime throughout his realm, with great effectiveness.

He worked to keep the Calvinist legions out of Spain and thwarted their inroads, which would have led to civil war and the deaths of thousands.

He supported all manner of artists including Titian in fostering beauty and philosophical perspectives in his realms.

He worked to bring Christianity to the new world and just treatment to the people's there. He did well, or at least as best he could considering his resources and limited influence in New Spain, though not without some unfortunate errors. [If he had take some actions there would have been serious general rebellions in New Spain, and he could well have lost all influence.]

He worked successfully to keep the Muslim's from over-running Europe. This was part of his strategy to guard his people and civilization against those who would destroy it.

Part of his grand strategy of life was to be a good father, and he did well in that regard. No man is a failure who does such.

His striving to conquer his personal weakness, to make his life conform to a Christ-like pattern and spiritual principles as he saw them, this is also an important aspect of evaluating a person.

Thus, Philip strategized in other ways and fostered many positive cultural/religious. The fact that they did not take hold was not remotely in his control.




I see it as a modern, Calvinistic influenced world-view that judges things disproportianately by the "geo-political" and economic viewpoint, and devalues other aspects of life. It also devalues the motives and love which a person puts into their work, all in obeisance to "the bottom line."


Regarding his management work, there are many cases where Philip's micro-management and waiting as long as possible ['until an elephant steps on your foot'] led to excellent decisions.

Further, one might ask what would have been the result if Philip had NOT micro-managed things like Lepanto? Walsh shows how it would not have gone well.

It is fine to blithely say "delegate" but who was he to delegate to? Alba? He was not balanced to make such decisions? Margaret? Too weak and influenceable. Parma turned down the offer to go the Netherlands before it went to Alba.


I would say that in the things that Philip actually could control he did very well. He was not at his best when dealing with dishonest rulers such as Elizabeth and her pirates, nor with duplicitous characters generally. And sometimes his fervor for good led to impractical policies.

I would give Philip an A- overall.

An A++ for effort and motive.

The author weaves this chapter in Spanish history with ease. The result is very impressive. Comparisons to other periods in history prove very enlightening, especially those related to the follies of micromanagement.

Geoffrey Parker's study of Philip II is a landmark. In this penetrating analysis, Parker has successfully distilled and tied together four decades of modern scholarship on strategy, decision making, and organization theory with an original evaluation of Philip of Spain's motivations, priorities, and execution. Gone are the nationalistic generalizations and the structural excuses. Structural and institutional factors get coverage, but the real story is in the man at the top, who had to make the decisions, good and bad.

Parker starts with a discussion on the strategic culture surrounding Philip, to include his "strategic inheritence" from his father, Charles V, the massive information network over which Philip presided (and the irresistable temptation to micro-manage), and the 'messianic imperialism' context that was of Philip's own making.

Messianic imperialism is the backbone for the rest of the book, which deals with the formation and the execution of grand strategy. Parker clearly evaluates Philip's strategy v. the Dutch and the English. For reasons that he explained early in his preface, the Mediterranean theater gets shorter coverage, but it is clear that the Med. concerns were never far from Philip's mind. The French Huguenots also don't get as detailed treatment as they could have gotten, but Parker's summation of the results of Philip's policy towards France is still satisfying.

Parker makes many allusions to strategic and policy issues of the recent past, and it is clear that Philip's problems were not all the different in scope, if not in scale, than those faced by political and military leaders today. Philip's inability to discipline himself to focus on one event to see it through to completion, his inabiltiy to keep himself from micromanaging decisions from over 600 miles away, and his inability to see past his divine mission to perceive reality will all strike familiar chords.

Bottom line: Great history, great interpretation, great analysis. It has got to be a classic in the field.

This very good book is an examination of Philip II's methods of foreign policy formulation and execution. As such, this is a detailed look at the governance methods of the most powerful monarch of the early modern period and is illuminating on how states and monarchs functioned during this period. This detailed examination is possible because of the extensive documentation surviving from much of Philip's reign including a huge amount of his personal correspondence and own state papers. Parker is a leading expert on Philip and early modern Europe and a good writer.
Philip emerges as a man with many admirable features, in some respects, a model King. Clearly intelligent and well educated, he was remarkably diligent, spending many hours per day engaged in state business and was very conscientious about his responsibilities. While his work capacity and attention waned in his later years, he was able to sustain a prodigious work load over a period of decades. If there can be said to be a heroic bureaucrat, it was Philip. Given the huge extent of the world wide empire he inherited and the wide array of challenges he faced with a relatively primitive supporting bureacracy and poor communications technologies, Philip did surprisingly well. There were, however, significant limitations, some structural, some a function of Philip's personality. The enormous diversity of the empire creates a huge variety of problems, and policies useful for on part of the empire could be destructive for other parts of the empire. The relatively primitive administrative apparatus made these conflicts difficult to reconcile. This system demanded an active and hard working autocrat at the center and while Philip did well in this role, it was simply not humanly possible for one man to shoulder the burdens he assumed. As Parker makes clear, many of Philip's problems were inherent in the nature of monarchy in early modern Europe, though of greater magnitude because of the scope of the empire. Philip's personality added additional significant problems. Philip, like many autocrats, was a micromanager who had difficulty in discriminating when to delegate and when to be personally involved. This often led to inefficient formulation and execution of policy. He was also intensely pious. His dedication to orthodox Catholicism led him to policies that were sometimes counter to the pragmatic interests of the empire. This is certainly true of his failure to deal successfully with Protestantism in the Netherlands and the Dutch Revolt. His faith also led him to the conclusion that when things were uncertain, divine providence would somehow provide. This religous assurance was probably personally comforting but didn't help the Armada overcome key tactical obstacles during the attempted conquest of England.
Parker provides some comparative perspective by comparing Philip to other contemporary monarchs, particularly Elizabeth I of England. He also tries to develop a more general perspective by extracting broad lessons about executive performance. This effort has mixed success. His resort to Business school literature about efficient executives is not very informative. His broad historical comparisons are more fruitful though his attempts to differentiate his analyses from those of Paul Kennedy in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers are not entirely successful. In a couple of respects, however, I found Parker's analyses surprisingly apposite. Writing about the use of intelligence information, Parker makes the good point that decision makers under pressure, like Philip in 1587-1588, tend to interpret intelligence in a way that confirms their preconceptions, often willfully distorting potentially contradictory information. Sound familiar? Parker has a telling discussion of how Philip used diplomacy (we would now say soft power) in Italy as the most resource effective method of obtaining objectives and quotes one of Philip's administrative officials as pointing out that once you lose your diplomatic credibility, it is difficult and expensive to recover. Another familiar problem.

"The Grand Strategy of Philip II" is a rare book. On the one hand, it is a convincing scholarly reassessment of Spanish imperial policy during the pivotal late 16th century. In that sense, the book is written to the high standards of the academy: exhaustive primary research - much of it in the original Spanish, Latin, Italian and French - and close consideration of competing theories from previous, notable works on the period. On the other hand, the book is an exemplary work of modern strategic studies, with a dash of business school case study analysis. This is a piece of academic history that cites such distinguished and diverse authorities as Peter Drucker, Carl von Clausewitz and John Lewis Gaddis and uses a broad range of historical analogies - from the Vietnam War, the Second World War and the US Civil War - to illuminate and contrast critical points. The end result is one of the more compelling works on strategy written in the past few decades.

Geoffrey Parker very much wrote this book in response to Paul Kennedy's poor treatment of Philip II and the decline of the Spanish empire in Kennedy's enormously popular and influential 1987 book "The rise and fall of the Great Powers." On the surface, Parker seeks to refute the conventional academic wisdom that Philip II had no grand strategy in any sense of the term. While the issue of "grand strategy" is discussed throughout, the book really revolves around Philip's planned 1588 invasion of England, which featured the legendary Spanish Armada and ended in utter catastrophe before it really began.

The book is broken into three more-or-less equal components. The first section offers a fascinating overview of the world Philip lived in and the unmanageable world of paperwork and decision-making that he created for himself. Parker is none too kind to Philip in this book. Most of the challenges and failures of Philip's half-century reign Parker attributes to Philip's insistence on the centralization and compartmentalization of all information and decision-making (Parker openly compares his style and system to that of Hitler). Parker suggests that if Philip had been born 500 years later in similarly privileged circumstances, he might have been an awful CEO of a family-owned business. One of his great faults, in Parker's estimation, was his "zero-defects mentality" - the fear of failure that so dominated his actions that it paralyzed his ability to act on anything but certain knowledge.

Parker describes stunning scenes of Philip working 18-hours-a-day like some Wall Street attorney, hunched over a mountain of papers and embroiled in the most arcane details of imperial appointments and financial management (of which he had little understanding).

Much has been made of the long time it took for messages to travel from place to place in the 16th century. Parker argues that it was more the uncertainty of communications that presented the truly vexing problem of the age, not necessarily the long time it took for information to travel. For instance, a message from Venice to Paris could take anywhere from one to six weeks to arrive. It was the unknown margin that led leaders to fits of despair and uncertainty. Finally, Parker raises an issue in this first section that forms a central part of his indictment against Philip II - his profound and unshakeable conviction that the mission of Spain and that of God were one in the same, and thus any obstacle or shortfall could be overcome by the miraculous intervention of the Lord himself, a phenomenon that Parker calls "messianic imperialism." The issue of religion - Catholic vs. Protestant - trumped all other considerations and Philip consistently and confidently undertook any effort that involved upholding or reclaiming the faith with the sincere expectation of a Moses-parting-the-Red-Sea style miracle to carry him to victory.

The second section is a review of the situation in the Netherlands and foreign relations with England's Elizabeth Tudor. As background, these chapters are necessary and highly informative, but they aren't nearly as absorbing and exciting to the layman as the first and final sections.

The third and final section offers a focused treatment of the question: "Why did the Armada fail?" For contemporary strategists, this section is by far the most compelling. He addresses in turn the three topics most often cited as the reasons for the failure of the Armada to link with the ground forces under the duke of Parma in the Netherlands and then to launch the cross channel conquest of England.

First, Parker addresses the fact that the planned invasion of England was "the worst kept secret in Europe." Parker likens the intelligence situation facing Elizabeth to that of the US government before Pearl Harbor. Yes, much of the enemy's plan was compromised, but the high noise-to-signals ratio and the repeated false warnings of impending invasion meant that strategic surprise, especially the well-concealed intended landing site of Kent, was still achieved. Like the FDR administration in 1941, Elizabeth knew everything, and yet knew nothing.

Second, and perhaps most dramatically given the generally sober and academic tone of the rest of the book, Parker vigorously defends the actions and preparations of the invasion forces commander in the Netherlands, the duke of Parma. He argues that Parma achieved unparalleled logistical feats to get his 27,000-man invasion force in place and ready to embark within a day-and-a-half, so any notion that the plan failed because Parma either intentionally sabotaged the invasion or was incompetent must be rejected, if one accepts Parker's reasoning.

Finally, Parked concludes that the superior English naval capabilities - better ships, bigger guns, more effective leadership, better tactics, more experience in general - ultimately doomed the Armada and thus the invasion plans to failure. Everything hinged on the ability of the Spanish to establish sea control in the Channel to get Parma's forces to England, and the British naval superiority made that basic objective nearly impossible. The British advantage is very much described in terms that we today would refer to a "revolution in military affairs " (RMA). Indeed, Max Boot used the defeat of the Armada as one of his case studies in his recent, excellent review of the RMA argument in "War Made New." Parker writes that the Spanish fully anticipated English tactics and appreciated their advantages in long-range gunnery and maneuverability, and were simply unable to overcome them.

Parker sums up the Armada's failure and Philip's direct role in causing the disaster this way: "Philip's flawed 'management style' frustrated the Armada's success far more than the loss of secrecy, the lack of communication between the two theater commanders, and the technical differences between the two fleets. His refusal to delegate, his 'zero-defects mentality', his self-generated information overload and his messianic outlook produced grave strategic errors that rendered operational success almost impossible."