A History of Medieval Spain

Medieval Spain is brilliantly recreated, in all its variety and richness, in this comprehensive survey.

Joseph F. O'Callaghan is Professor Emeritus of History at Fordham University. He is a past president of the American Catholic Historical Association and the Academy of American Historians of Medieval Spain.

This book is a comprehensive narrative history based on an impressively wide reading in the sources and secondary literature. It should prove useful to teachers, students, and general readers in European history.... Soundly traditional in its organization, it gives primacy to political events without neglecting institutional, social, and cultural matters.

There is no existing substitute for this volume in English for the undergraduate or graduate student seeking a reliable orientation to medieval peninsular history.

O'Callaghan's A History of Medieval Spain is indispensable to the medievalist and to the Latin-Americanist alike. It is encyclopedic in nature, making it a valuable reference tool.... On the whole, it represents considerable familiarity with the sources of information and learned condensation of that material. The chapters on society, economy, and culture give the reader a wider view than a skeletal political history of medieval Spain.

Joseph O'Callaghan has now given us, for the first time, a solid and in-depth survey in English on the peninsular kingdoms, drawing together the myriad recent contributions, with the expertise of a recognized scholar in the field and the practicality of a long-time teacher of the topic.... Competence, thorough inclusiveness, clear organization, and solidity are the qualifiers which best sum O’Callaghan’s accomplishment.

Joseph F. O'Callaghan has met a major, long-felt need with a clearly written, balanced, thorough survey that belongs in every history collection. His Spain is the entire peninsula—Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Portuguese, and Catalonian as well as Castilian. A substantial political narrative is followed by chapters on government, social and economic developments, and religion and culture. The author even-handedly represents the major sides in disputed issues, for his aim is to present the current state of scholarship in a simple narrative form. He has succeeded admirably.