This book is a very pleasant surprise. It provides a concise and detailed history of Portugal by covering major events of the country's historic evolution. The main arguments flow logically and are easy to follow. The book includes many different and varied topics and it is pleasant to read. It shows how the country has evolved by describing major events that have shaped the society and culture of the country. The book even covers culinary, musical and folkloric traditions. Last but not least, it is written with love for Portugal and its people: the author feels blessed to live in Portugal. For the author, Portugal constitutes a personal choice of life. The book is a very good introduction to the people and history of Portugal. I never felt bored reading it. I would highly recommend it to all those who would like to learn more about a country for which we know very little.
Planning a trip to Portugal? Or wondering why you should go to Portugal? If you want to read a book that will enhance the trip you are planning, you could read a historical mystery novel or you could read The Portuguese, which is a novelistic history.
If you think that history books are too dry and boring to hold your interest, you have not read Barry Hatton s The Portuguese: A Modern History. While he does go back as far as the Age of Discovery, the bygone age when Portugal spread its empire around the globe, most of the book focuses on history closer to our own time and indeed Portugal a shrunken Portugal today.
Throughout the book, Hatton is most interested in exploring what makes the Portuguese the way they are. How did a world power sink from view on the world stage? Why do they currently occupy a very low rung on the Eruopean economic ladder?
And when is the last time you read a history book that provides a travel guide for high points to visit? About the size of the state of Indiana, (350 miles by 130 miles) it contains enough charming landscape to keep tourists busy for weeks. Even those tourists who think they are visiting just another province of Spain since many foreigners get confused about where and what it is. Hatton s descriptions made me scribble a list
The Algarve, known for upscale resorts.
Lisbon, There is little sense of a rat race going on. It feels and this is intended as a compliment more like a gentle canter towards lunch.
Belém, the suburb of Lisbon where the Monument to Discovery celebrates those little wooden ships that ventured out in the 16th century to change the map of the world. Vasca de Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan and a dozen other intrepid explorers and traders sailed out of this port.
Alentejo, unspoiled coasts (go quickly, they re being developed) and forests of cork trees. Alentejo s low, whitewashed farmhouses with thick walls and small windows against the heat stand in solitude....In spring these silent plains are thick with the fragrance of wild herbs and colored with vast patches of purple, yellow, and red flowers around the cork trees.
Hatton, who has lived in Portugal as a correspondent for more than twenty-five years, is married to a Portuguese woman. He talks about food and music because he believes they are a key to understanding the Portuguese psyche.
They have a collective angst, which is expressed in the sad fado music of their country. Portugal is summed up by the nearly untranslatable word saudide which kind of means a sweet sadness a desire for something unattainable, but hoped for nonetheless. The people accept their fate, Hatton says, with a peaceful shrug and a sardonic comment rather than taking to the streets and demanding change like Greece, which in many ways is similar to Portugal.
The Portuguese feel that destiny has dealt them a poor hand and they shake their fist at their lot in life, but they do not as a rule express this indignation in a constructive way. Instead, Hatton says, sidestepping the law offers the thrill of successful transgression. He calls it a tame insurrection.
Even in the revolution that overthrew the 30-year dictatorship of Antonio Salazar, the soldiers sported carnations in their guns, demonstrating their unwillingness to fire on anyone. But the 1974 coup was quick and complete, and the growing pains of democracy followed, until they joined the European Union in 1986 and went on a growth and spending spree, largely at the cost to other countries in the EU. This tendency, and the cheerfulness of the people, the focus on family and church before country, the clinging an ancient and glorious past, all reminded me of Greece. In many ways Portugal seems to have a Mediterranean
nature, even though it is actually an Atlantic Ocean country. --a traveler's library
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From the Back Cover
?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.
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