In 1864, George Eliot began writing her longest poem, "The Spanish Gypsy". This project exhausted her, and her partner took the manuscript away from her for fear it was making her ill. This work explains what Eliot read to research the poem, which parts caused her particular problems and summarises the poem's critical reception.

Drawing extensively on the author's archival research, this is the first major study in English of the first three and a half centuries in Spain of a people, its 'gitanos', who, despite their elevation by Spaniards and non-Spaniards alike to culturally iconic status, have until now remained invisible to history in the English-speaking world.

Fulfilling the need for English-source material on contemporary Spain, this book supplies readers with an in-depth, interdisciplinary guide to the country of Spain and its intricate, diverse culture. Far from a usual reference book, Modern Spain takes the reader through the country's history, economy, and politics as well as topics that address Spain's popular culture, such as food, sports, and sexuality. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of its content, this book differs from the average typical English manuals that very rarely cover in depth the whole array of interesting issues that define Spain in the 21st century. The vast amount of information makes this book the perfect companion for any reader wishing to learn more about Spain. Packed with current facts and statistics, this book offers an unbiased view of a modern country, making it an ideal source for undergraduate students and scholars.

Since Spain’s transition to democracy there has been rapid economic modernization, the establishment of a functioning liberal democracy, and a cultural renaissance. One area in which ordinary Spaniards have noted a massive change since the 1970s has been in the transformation of the road and rail networks, and also in local amenities—from sporting facilities to centers for the aged. Also impressive is the cleanliness of Spanish cities and the efforts put into town planning. And from the 1980s the country also built a successful public health system. As a result, for the first time since the 19th century Spaniards can largely look toward the West without any sense of inferiority (though, in recent years, confidence has been hit by the deep recession of 2008–2011 and the constant corruption scandals). This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Spain contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Spain.

Can citizenship rights be denied to significant groups in a society that regards itself as civilized and self-governing? Is it possible to exclude such people in the name of freedom and reason? Is it plausible to explain classifications that differentiate between first- and second-class citizens as “natural”? This is the paradox inherent in modern politics, born of the revolutions that ended the Ancien Régime in the western world. Throughout the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth, liberalism inspired a representative form of government that appealed to citizenship, yet marginalized many social groups, including natives, women, immigrants, workers, slaves and nomads. In the Hispanic dimension of the Atlantic world that this book deals with, modern politics was based on exclusions explained as natural and necessary. In both Europe and America, a distinction was made between the responsible citizen and those “others” in society, potential “enemies within”, who had to be controlled and supervised. This book explains the success of this political operation by analysing the historical construction of figures of alterity that were fundamental to the definition of national civic identities. Its basic premise is that imaginaries that were constructed in the nineteenth century can be found even today in western political conceptions. The cultural complexity of enduring political images is revealed by exploring the inner workings of virtuous figures in relation to their opposites: readers will find the mosaic of representations of civic alterity both recognisable and surprising. The contributors to this volume provide historical perspectives on the debate on political legitimacy in open societies. Reinventing democracies involves understanding the historicity of inherited formulae of governance and considering them, therefore, as amenable to improvement. The readiness to do this is not a threat to democracy but, rather, a commitment to looking for it.