Catalonia: A New History

Catalonia: A New History revises many traditional and romantic conceptions in the historiography of a small nation. This book engages with the scholarship of the past decade and separates nationalist myth-history from real historical processes. It is thus able to provide the reader with an analytical account, situating each historical period within its temporal context. Catalonia emerges as a territory where complex social forces interact, where revolts and rebellions are frequent. This is a contested terrain where political ideologies have sought to impose their interpretation of Catalan reality. This book situates Catalonia within the wider currents of European and Spanish history, from pre-history to the contemporary independence movement, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of nation-making.

Andrew Dowling is Reader in Spanish History at Cardiff University and researches the history and politics of Catalonia. He has previously published The Rise of Catalan Independence: Spain's Territorial Crisis with Routledge in 2018 and Catalonia since the Spanish Civil War: Reconstructing the Nation (Sussex Academic Press, 2012).

Introduction / Chapter One Origins, from Pre-History to the Romans / Chapter Two New Influences. Visigoths, Christianity and the Arabs, 400-800 / Chapter Three Consolidation and Expansion 800 to 1150 / Chapter Four Aragon and the Mediterranean Empire 1150 to 1410 / Chapter Five Decline and Revolt 1415 to 1660 / Chapter Six Political incorporation, economic advance 1660 to 1830 / Chapter Seven Social conflict, national revival and ideological dispute 1830-1939 / Chapter Eight Francoism and the Democratic Experience 1939-2008 / Epilogue The failed push for Catalan independence