Spanish History: A Captivating Guide to the History of Spain and the Basques Paperback – December 12, 2020

I love these books as they are always informative, educational and interesting! Provides the right amount of facts/tidbits - not too little, not too much.

This Book is a bundle of two previous books, both of which I have read and reviewed. Both have been excellent reads and I gave The Basques 5 stars and Spanish History 4 stars. Captivating History is doing an excellent job of bringing history more available to everyone without long boring text book writing. And if you want to learn more on a particular subject, they provide a bibliography to allow more detailed study.

I like learning about the past, where we come from, and how the actions of our ancestors affect the present. Captivating History's narrative is concise yet detailed enough to paint a good picture of the facts that have led us to the present. Fact-checking is easy by highlighting names, battles, or places and searching online.I recommend Captivating History books to anyone who wants to learn about the past for a better future.

I have family in Spain and lived here for four years. I have read a few different histories and found this one to be very easy to read and complete. It you are looking for a well written and interesting take on the history of Spain I recommend this book.

Reads like it was written by a high school student who only used wikipedia as a source.

Matt Clayton does a tradeoff of detail for span of history in the first half of the bundle.While I herald the Captivating History series for its peppering the canvas of human history with many short publications, I occasionally lament the lack of detail that clarifies historical evolution with answers to why as opposed to howMatt Clayton provides an informative read about the history of people who affected many nations as well as were affected by. Spain was a battlefield for countries fighting for other causes and was also at one time one of the largest empires in the world.The publication begins with the prehistory of the area and leads into the Punic Wars. Subsequently the imprint of Rome, the transformation under the Visigoths and Muslim cultures are discussed.Matt discusses the Spanish Inquisition followed by Spain's growth and fall as a dominant entity in the world. A good 20% of the narrative is placed on the events of the 20th century and where Spain is today.In the second half of this bundle, Matt focuses on the Basques as a unique people. Their genetic makeup comes from a period from12,000 to 4,500 years ago. They were isolated from other human migrations and their langue was unique, having no genealogical relationship with other languages. They lived in a small triangular-shaped region straddling the northeastern portion of Spain and the southeastern portion of France.Matt Clayton provides a brief but fascinating history of these people who have survived the tumult of history. He touches upon the influence of the Visigoths, Romans, Charlemagne, their survival through the Middle Ages into this modern period. Even today, a movement exists within the Basque people in France and Spain that supports their autonomy.A generous bibliography is provided for further research.

This two book bundle is an absolutely fascinating look into the histories of Spain and The Basques.I was taught very little about Spain or it's history in school, and absolutely nothing about the Basques, amazing ancient people who still thrive to this day with little changes.I really enjoyed learning about Spain in the first book, especially the Prehistory and about Roman Hispania.The stories recounting all the times that Spain has been occupied by other people and went through so many wars, are fascinating,informative and interesting. I did not know they had such an expansive history.Book two about The Basques was beyond interesting! I loved learning about these people that there are not widely known about in America.I loved reading their history and how these noble people have fought so hard to keep their language and culture in its originality.I loved these two books and I highly recommend them both to anyone wishing to explore two amazing histories.

"Spanish History" is Captivating History's answer to the need for a complete history of Spain in an accessible, interesting format. It excels in this respect.This collection features two previously released titles: "History of Spain" and "The Basques." Both works provide a history from Roman rule to modern times. As such, readers receive a full history of this country.As always, this author includes a bibliography. Anyone can see this diligence, however, just from the passionate prose and contemplative explanations. Still, it is good to see documented sources."Spanish History" is an exceptional work of history. Irrespective of their familiarity with Spanish history, everyone can enjoy reading it due to its accessible nature. This informative, entertaining work is a true standout from the rest, which is no surprise given Captivating History's unstoppable ability to produce the best historical releases in this format.