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The author deserves credit for a thoroughly researched book. However, it becomes tedious and confusing at times. I think it would have been easier to get through it the chapters had analytical summaries at their beginning and end. The introduction alone is worth a read. However, unless you’re steeped in the multitude of labor unions and political factions of Spain, this is a tough read.
There were so many names of people and organizations, that I struggled . I started skipping parts and eventually gave up. I guess the book was not quite what I was expecting.
medium-paced
I learned to much from this book - I feel like it gave me a great foundation for understanding modern Spain. The thesis is that (elite corruption + elite corruption) --> social division, as per the subtitle. The Spanish people are given quite a blanket pass in this account. Sociological francoism is sort of brushed off, and the people don't really have all that much agency.
The last few chapters were really just page after page after page of corruption scandals in the post-Franco era. I get it. And I certainly see the continuities. But it just felt like he wanted to write all of these stories and so they all went in and were left in. Over the 150 years or so of the book, things sometimes get way too "inside baseball" as we say in the US - too detailed, sometimes really down in the weeds.
The writing style is interesting. On the one hand, it can be pretty exhilerating. He mostly writes well. On the other hand, sometimes the style of pivoting through different topics creates non sequiturs. As a writer studying this in part for Preston's style I could see the writerly artifice behind it. It's mostly great but, again, it can be overdone.
The last few chapters were really just page after page after page of corruption scandals in the post-Franco era. I get it. And I certainly see the continuities. But it just felt like he wanted to write all of these stories and so they all went in and were left in. Over the 150 years or so of the book, things sometimes get way too "inside baseball" as we say in the US - too detailed, sometimes really down in the weeds.
The writing style is interesting. On the one hand, it can be pretty exhilerating. He mostly writes well. On the other hand, sometimes the style of pivoting through different topics creates non sequiturs. As a writer studying this in part for Preston's style I could see the writerly artifice behind it. It's mostly great but, again, it can be overdone.
An extremely dense recap of all the bad stuff that ever happened in Spanish politics
informative
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced