Mark KurlanskyThe Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation

Amazingly thorough, delightfully well written. Being of Basque lineage myself I'm always on the lookout for books and movies on the subject and having had quite a bit of experience with both I can say this book is by far the best at being easily digestible and all encompassing when it comes to everything Basque. Speaking of digestible Kurlansly even throws in Basque recipes which I think is one of the coolest ways to learn about a people by getting to know what they eat, and food seems to be his expertise based on some of his previous works and it shows but the book is complete with history I'm ashamed to say even I didnt know about. How such a broad and intricate subject fits into this little book is a testament to the authors talent and is clearly a love letter from him to everything basque. Wonderful read and I'm not big on leaving reviews but this one I couldn't resist...3 cheers for the author and for Euskal Herria!

this is the best treatment I’ve found on the history and culture of my new colleagues and clients. But it’s much more than that. In the context of current repudiation of mainstream modern culture, the Basque affirmation of tradition and innovation is both striking and inspiring. Read about it!

Why did the Basques, a tiny group of fewer than three million people, survive as a culture? This is implicitly the main question asked by Kurlansky's history of the Basques. (Incidentally, this is not really a Basque history of the world as much as it is a history of the Basque world -- though since the Basques got around a lot as sailors and whalers, its a good-sized world). Here's what I take to be the author's answers to that question:1) Because they were relatively geographically isolated in an infertile part of the world with rugged landscapes that isolated them from surrounding peoples and even from one another -- small as the Basque region is, there are still seven different Basque dialects from different areas. A single written language did not emerge until the 20th century.2) Because in the era of urbanization in Spain, mainly the late 19th and the 20th century, Basqueland became prosperous from industrialization and so the Basques did not have to migrate to the cities of other countries or other parts of Spain where they would have been assimilated.3) Because they were persecuted by Franco and other Spanish rulers, which strengthened their tribal solidarity.4) Because they were clannish and family-centered, due to a weak state apparatus that forced them to rely on one another and their community.5) Because a common Catholic faith and a strong network of Basque-speaking parish priests held them together.But the argument can be made that the Basque culture has not really survived, if language is taken as the key defining element of a culture. The vast majority of Basques don't know how to speak Basque fluently and certainly don't speak it at home. When I traveled to that region this year, I sure didn't hear a lot of Basque spoken on the streets of San Sebastian or Pamplona or other Basque cities. In a century, will it still exist? I hope so, but I think it's a long shot that a language that has declined this far can be brought back to the mainstream -- no matter how much effort Basque authorities put into teaching it in schools and ensuring a steady stream of Basque language publications. We live in an age of the languages of small groups, especially those that don't have their own country, dying out at a brisk clip. Most of the languages spoken in the world today are not expected to exist by the end of this century.The book is a fascinating read, from the earliest historical times during the Roman era up to the present. The reach of the Basque people extended far, wherever their fishing boats and whaling ships and emigrants reached, and contributed very heavily to the exploration efforts of the Spanish during the age of the Spanish global empire. The author does a particularly good job, I thought, of explaining Basque nationalism, both its narrow-minded, nativist aspects and its rich cultural elements. The competing desires of different Basque groups drove them into taking sides during Spain's various civil wars of the 19th and 20th centuries that pitted them against both other parts of Spain and even against one another. Highly conservative, religious monarchists fighting on the side of the Carlist pretender to the throne during the civil wars of the 19th century clashed violently with more progressive Basques seeking greater autonomy for their homeland under a less centralized monarchy. Similarly, during the Civil War of the 1930s, some Basques such as those of Navarre allied with Franco because of his supposed devotion to the Church and to the monarchy, in opposition to the Spanish Republican government and to most of the rest of their fellow Basques, who were slaughtered by both Franco's well-armed troops and those of Mussolini and Hitler. Kurlansky tells a complicated story very well -- while not leaving out his favorite Basque recipes.

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The author is an entertaining story teller, peppering the chapters with recipes for classical dishes that reflect Basque history, from the famous cod whose sauce arises from the cod itself to the elusive baby eels. There's a bit of recycling here, as others mentioned, from earlier works like 'Cod' but that's inevitable given the subject matter, The daunting overview of the sweep of Basque history, over 3000 years that is known, is accomplished with great competency. Little known tidbits about this enigmatic people are nicely expounded upon, such the fact that the Basques likely and regularly crossed the North Atlantic in pursuit of cod and whales before Columbus' fateful journey and that they were pioneers of iron manufactory at the birth of the industrial age. The problem is that the work often comes across as an apologia for some of the darker elements of recent Basque history.The author can't seem to help himself but blend in bits of his own politics (decidedly Left) giving a pass to 'enlightened' leftist revolutionary & radical trends in the Basque nationalist movement and uses labels of 'Right' and 'Left' in the 21st century context for movements and personages of the 19th and early 20th conflating matters that unfortunately mislead. Discussions of the Civil War and its aftermath are unavoidable and it's here where the author unfortunately lets his bias through the most. Mr Kurland all too often becomes an apologist for pretty questionable actions by ETA (who adopted the violence of the 'anti-colonialist' Left), straying into polemics instead of conveying a balanced discussion of a complex struggle. At one strange point, a discussion of past events breaks into the present for a tutorial about what Basques actually want, and that doesn't seem include independence. Franco is accurately portrayed as the authoritarian brute that he was, foisted into power by the Nazis, but also someone not as numbingly dumb as Kurland would have us believe, that he couldn't deftly played both sides against the middle well into the depths of the Cold War and two generations after Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini were rotting in their respective graves. The price, of course, was retarding Spain's cultural and economic development through most of the 20th century, something that cannot be disputed. The author glosses over the true nature of the Republican side, who notwithstanding their name, rapidly devolved into Useful Idiots for Stalin. He fails to recognize that they were as much stooges for this monster as Franquistas were for Hitler, perpetrating crimes as heinous as the Fascists during their brief reign. There was a damned good reason entrepreneurial, capitalist Basques did not simply throw in their lot with a faction that became dominated by dogmatic Marxists, but instead kept them at arm's length even after the Guernica/Gernika slaughter. Despite the book's shortcomings, much can be gleaned here about a nation whose saga begins before recorded history and ought to inspire curious readers to delve deeper into their story.

Great historic and cultural review, well written.

Proof that history can be fun! I have really enjoyed every part of this book, and would call it a real page turner.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read some of the reviews, and though I am not a "footnote" reader, I am not bothered by the lack of footnotes as one complained about, the author states throughout the book "legend says" and the Basque did not document their history in writing. A lot of it is legends, songs and whatever others wrote about the basque, ie: the Romans. The story is well engaging, I had a hard time putting this book down. I may read it again as their are SO many things the author brings up that were new to me. It has "legends" I may do more research on. It spans such a long period, really brilliant!!

This all encompassing history of a small region of Europe I have never been to and have no reason to empathise with, managed to provide compelling reading.The book paints a picture of a violent and hard fought history of Basqueness with its rich oral Euskera language, the Basque legal Fueros system, its recipes and food and portraits of leading people. Though their land resides in three provinces of France and four of Spain, Basques have always insisted they have a country and they call it Euskadi. All the powerful peoples around them - the Celts and the Romans, the royal houses of Aquitaine, Navarra, Aragon and Castile; later the Spanish and French monarchies, dictatorships and republics - have tried to subdue and assimilate them and all have failed.The history is violent from the Inquisition's attempts in the 1600's to weed out Basque witches to the brutal and complicated nineteenth century Carlist civil wars, the French Revolution that set off not only Spaniards against Basques, but also Basques against Basques to Franco's civil war in the 20th century and then ETA.Whilst the Basques are united by language and identify with their family home, they are an outward looking, entrepreneurial people of traders, fishermen and whalers who prior to Columbus were fishing and whaling as far away as Norway and Newfoundland. They probably had settled in the US prior to Columbus 1488 "discovery" and certainly provided Columbus with many of the captains of his fleet that found their way there. The Basques were not only leading industrialists, with Bilbao pioneering steel making, but also the first modern bankers in Spain.Despite repeated invasions the Basques have maintained an identity with their Fueros law and their language. The Fueros was a remarkably progressive medieval law. Revised ion 1526 it was one of the first legal codes to outlaw the use of torture, ban debtors prison, protect citizens from arbitrary arrest and give women more consideration than most mediaval law - for example property rights.Basque cooking and cuisine is a recurring theme of the book with recipes described in great detail and examples of Basque cuisine, for example on how to cook an eel and avoiding slime secreted from its glands spoiling the dish by plunging it into warm water. Basque eels are exported all over the world.The promotion of the Basque language , Euskera, is the unifying factor and remains the first goal of the most nationalists. Franco tried to dilute it by drafting many non Basques into the Basque region but with the formation of ETA it became the defining factor of Basqueness. Traditionally an oral language with many dialects it was only in the 20th Century that it became a written language.Portraits of leading characters are drawn from Jenaro Pildain a master of the pil pil cod dish to nationalists such as Sabino Arana who in 1893 organised public demonstrations declaring Basque nationalism and the poets like Jose Antonio AguirreA rich and thought provoking book.

Written twenty years ago, this story could use an update as things were changing very quickly when the author closed it out.; and some recent pictures of the area would be helpful. From his description of mostly small towns and villages in remote areas it is easy to picture their life as it had occurred over a thousand years or more. It’s also easy to understand how these people could have been treated so poorly through the medieval and later development of Europe.What is harder to understand were the more recent effects of fascist dictator Franco (1936-1975), a man who devoted nearly forty years of his rule to keeping the Basques (and Catalans) down and even prevented the speaking of their age-old Euskeran language. But they survived after a fashion and by the end of the book (1999) they seem to be on the road to reaching their long-time goal of being left in peace to carry on with their culture, part modern industrial and part cottage industry. At times slow reading since Kurlansky as usual, leaves out little detail. You will come away knowing more about the Basques and their territory than you could ever imagine.