This is an awesome book, but first, let's get the annoying stuff out of the way: The author is a bit obsessed with dates which, typographically speaking, gives the body text a sort of algebraic flavor. Did I need to note the exact year in which Alfonso X farted? Not really. Do all those numbers disrupt the narrative flow? You betcha. Another problem is the complex language that he often uses to describe pretty mundane ideas. It's cringeworthy, and along with the numbers, makes my brain hiccup.

“The witness of those who lived through the horrors of the Berber conquest, of the Andalusian fitnah in the early eleventh century, of the Almoravid invasion – to mention only a few disruptive episodes – must give it the lie.”

Those two faults aside, the book is an absolute masterpiece. The narrative is well structured and concise. The author does his best to look at the history objectively and not succumb to idealization, which is quite common in studies on that period. Yet, despite omitting the usual poetic nonsense about a lost paradise, the book is anything but boring. On a few occasions I felt the urge to clap. Here's an example:

“Those who are too idle to prepare decent food can buy pungent sauces in supermarkets to disguise the absence of flavour in the meat or fish they smother with them. The past, like the present, is for most of the time rather flavourless. ‘Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.’ Larkin’s line should be the historian’s motto. But in the cultural conditions that prevail in the west today the past has to be marketed, and to be successfully marketed it has to be attractively packaged. Medieval Spain in a state of nature lacks wide appeal. Self-indulgent fantasies of glamour or guilt do wonders for sharpening up its image.”

Amen!

P.S. Highly recommended to anyone interested in Iberian history, especially for those who look for a detailed straight-to-the point introduction.