The Portuguese: A Modern History [Paperback]

Portugal is an established member of the European Union, one of the founders of the euro currency and a founding member of NATO. Yet it is an inconspicuous and largely overlooked country on the continent’s southwest rim. Barry Hatton shines a light on this enigmatic corner of Europe by blending historical analysis with entertaining personal anecdotes. He describes the idiosyncrasies that make the Portuguese unique and surveys the eventful path that brought them to where they are today. Portugal, which claims Europe’s oldest fixed borders, measures just 561 by 218 kilometers. Within that space, however, it offers a patchwork of widely differing and beautiful landscapes. With an easygoing and seductive lifestyle expressed most fully in their love of food, the Portuguese also have an anarchical streak evident in many facets of contemporary life. A veteran journalist and commentator on Portugal, the author gives a thorough overview of his adopted country.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. 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 lC3