A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain [Hardcover]

Prodigiously detailed and absorbing... Mr. Preston is, by some distance, the most prolific historian of modern Spain.... Born in 1946seven years after the end of the Spanish Civil WarMr. Preston is the reigning king of a tribe of brilliant 20th-century British historians who have shaped our understanding of Spain, often better than their Spanish counterparts have done with their own history. As an historian of modern Spain in the English-speaking world, Preston has no peer. Prestons work is a powerful intervention in a Spanish discussion. Its significance transcends the events it brings to light, and suggests some basic re-evaluations of recent European history. His eye for the winning detail makes his subjects quite human and enlivens the world of political maneuvering into something other than dry history. It is difficult to see this marvelous, brilliantly written and surely authoritative biography ever being matched. It is a book which any historian would be proud to have written.