How did a barren, thinly populated country, somewhat isolated from the rest of Europe, establish itself as the world's first superpower? Henry Kamen's impressive new book offers a fresh and highly original answer.
Empire is a global survey of the two and a halt centuries (from the late fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth) in which the Spaniards established the most extensive empire the world had ever known, ranging from Naples and the Netherlands to the Philippines. Unlike previous accounts, which have presented the Empire as a direct consequence of Spanish power, this provocative work of history emphasizes the inability of Spain to run an imperial enterprise by itself The role of conquest was deceptive. Spain's rise to power was actually made possible by the collaboration of international business interests, including Italian financiers, German technicians and Dutch traders, in the task of setting up networks of contact ranging across the oceans. At the height of its apparent power, the Spanish Empire was in reality a global enterprise in which non-Spaniards -- Portuguese, Basque, Aztec, Genoese, Chinese, Flemish, West African, Incan and Neapolitan -- played an essential role. It is this vast diversity of resources and people (which included many of its greatest adventurers and soldiers) that made Spain's power so overwhelming.
There is no better account in English of this time. Henry Kamen's book provides a highly relevant analysis of the origins and nature of imperial power, and of global economic activity. Challenging, persuasive and unique in its thesis, Empire explores Spain's complex impact on world history with admirable clarity and intelligence.

Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763

History

KAMEN, HENRY

Americas

Harper

Few would doubt that Spain has for several centuries made a huge contribution to Europe's culture. We all carry in our heads a seductive picture of what Spain stands for: its music, painting, buildings, and history. But what we do not understand is how much of this was the achievement of a very specific group: the Spanish in exile.
Henry Kamen's The Disinherited is the most significant and enjoyable book on Spain to appear for many years. He creates a picture of a dysfunctional, violent country that, since the destruction of the last Muslim territories in Granada in 1492, has expelled wave after wave of its citizens in a brutal attempt to create religious and social conformity. Muslims, Jews, Protestants, liberals, Socialists, and Communists were all driven abroad at different times, and consequently what we think of as Spanish culture was substantially their invention—a creative response both to having no home and to the shock of encountering new worlds.
With brilliant sympathy, Kamen describes these diverse exiles' travails as they scattered across Europe and Africa, across North and South America, many of them debarred by religion or politics from ever returning to Spain.They engaged in an unending project of fantasy about their old homeland—from the Sephardic communities of Amsterdam to the exiled Granada Muslims in Morocco, from liberal historians inventing the Black Legend of the Inquisition to painters in Paris inventing turreted, sensual Orientalist fantasies about the Alhambra. The twentieth century saw fresh waves of exile—from Picasso to Miró, Dalí to Buñuel, from Casals to Falla to Rodrigo—converting Spain itself into a cultural wasteland but enriching other cultures enormously. The Disinherited is a landmark work of cultural recovery, showing how Spain's history has created a "virtual" culture imagined by people often thousands of miles from home—but whose impact on the world has been incalculable.

The Disinherited: Exile and the Making of Spanish Culture, 1492-1975

Europe

A provocative, brilliant, and groundbreaking historical reconsideration of the roots of Spanish culture. 
We all carry in our heads a seductive picture of what Spain stands for: its music, painting, buildings, and history. But much of what we think of as Spanish culture is, in fact, the invention of a very specific group: the Spanish in exile. 
Historian Henry Kamen creates a vivid portrait of a dysfunctional, violent country that, since the destruction of the last Muslim territories in Granada in 1492, has expelled wave after wave of its citizens in a brutal attempt to create religious and social conformity. Muslims, Jews, Protestants, liberals, Socialists, and Communists were all driven abroad at different times, and Spain's enormous contribution to European culture is largely a result of these rejected peoples—their creative response both to having no home and to the shock of encountering new worlds. A landmark work, The Disinherited describes with illuminating sympathy the travails of these unwanted societies and the enduring "virtual" culture they imagined often thousands of miles from their lost home.

Harper-perennial

From the late-fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth century, Spain was the most extensive empire the world had seen, stretching from Naples and the Netherlands to the Philippines. This provocative work of history attributes Spain's rise to power to the collaboration of international business interests, including Italian financiers, German technicians, and Dutch traders. At the height of its power, the Spanish Empire was a global enterprise in which non-Spaniards -- Portuguese, Basque, Aztec, Genoese, Chinese, Flemish, West African, Incan, and Neapolitan -- played an essential role.
Challenging, persuasive, and unique in its thesis, Henry Kamen's Empire explores Spain's complex impact on world history with admirable clarity and intelligence.

How did a barren, thinly populated country, somewhat isolated from the rest of Europe become the world's first superpower? Henry Kamen's tremendous new book takes full advantage of its great theme to recreate the dazzling world of militant Castile from the fall of Moorish Granada and Columbus' first voyage to the imperial collapse over three centuries later. There is no better account in English of this immense, brutal adventure - a ceaseless quest for land, gold and slaves that made Spain, both for its conquered people and much of the rest of Europe, into a rapacious nightmare.

Spain's Road to Empire : The Making of a World Power, 1492-1763

World

Penguin??Books

Hardcover with dust jacket. G/G. Dust jacket is edge chipped and scuffed; covered with mylar. Boards are edge worn and rubbed.

The War of Succession in Spain, 1700-15

Indiana University Press

For twenty years Henry Kamen's The Spanish Inquisition (1965) has been acknowledged as the authoritative modern study of one of the most notorious institutions of the western world. In this new study he develops the argument of the original work, using unpublished archival material and the fruits of recent research to present an up-to-date and challenging reappraisal of theInquisition. Viewpoints, in particular, on the history of the Jews, the social and literary impact of the tribunal, and its effects on the religious life of the Spanish people have been re-examined andrevised.Inquisition and Society in Spain is a study not merely of the Inquisition but of its interaction with Spanish politics, literature and religion over a period of some three hundred years. In particular it examines the role of the Inquisition in the Counter Reformation. Dr Kamen argues here that the tribunal's impact was less critical than has often been thought, and that the successes and failures of Spanish society should'be attributed not to the Inquisition but to other, more fundamental, causes.The effect of Henry Kamen's highly-researched and dispassionate study is to take the heat out of debates on the subject and offer a fresh perspective on the problems provoked by the activity of the Inquisition.Henry Kamen holds a D. Phil, from Oxford University. He has been lecturer at Edinburgh and is now Reader in History at Warwick University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Among his books are The Spanish Inquisition, The Iron Century , Social Change in Europe 1550 -1660 and! A Concise Historyof Spain.

Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Indiana Univ. Pr

Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Inquisition and Society in Spain

George Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Orion Publishing Co

Ever since the sixteenth century, the Inquisition has been held synonymous with terror, bigotry and persecution, and distorted views of its activities persist today, Henry Kamen'sfirst study of the Inquisition, published in 1965, quickly became established as the best introduction to one of the most notorious institutions in western history. Now completely revised, it is the most up-to- date evaluation of the subject available.

The Spanish Inquisition

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Books by KAMEN, HENRY

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Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763

The Disinherited: Exile and the Making of Spanish Culture, 1492-1975

The Disinherited: Exile and the Making of Spanish Culture, 1492-1975

Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763

Spain's Road to Empire : The Making of a World Power, 1492-1763

The War of Succession in Spain, 1700-15

Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Inquisition and Society in Spain

Inquisition and Society in Spain

The Spanish Inquisition