Analyses with rare impartiality what sets the Catalans apart from Spain, and how the separatist debate is playing out.

"Catalonia: the struggle over independence offers an overview of Catalonia's political, cultural and economic life and its relations with the rest of Spain. It shows how Catalonia has long displayed the characteristics of a nation: distinct language and culture, separate social and political institutions, and a strong collective identity. At the same time, Catalonia has been one of Spain's primary centres of economic dynamism and innovation. As such, it is an especially striking instance of "minority' or 'internal' nations within a larger political order. During the Franco years, the Spanish state made a concerted effort to eliminate Catalonia's national characteristics. Subsequently, as it sought to restore the Catalan nation, Catalonia's leadership, and most of its population, presumed that Catalonia would pursue 'nation-building without a state' as part of the post-Franco constitutional and political order. This second edition analyzes the remarkable transformation that has taken place over the last decade. The ideal of an independent and sovereign Catalonia has become: the formal objective of Catalonia's parliament and government; the raison d'être of a strongly mobilized social movement; and the preferred arrangement of close to half of Catalonia's residents. In 2017, the drive for independence even led to a failed attempt to secure independence unilaterally, in defiance of Spain's constitution and its central state. How can this transformation best be explained and what does it portend for the future of Catalonia and Spain? The book offers Important insights about the origins of nationalism and the politics of secessionism. By exploring the challenge of accommodating 'internal nations' within a larger state, the book addresses a central question facing the political institutions of much of Europe and North America"--

Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations fighting for the POUM militia of the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War. The war was one of the defining events of his political outlook and a significant part of what led him to write in 1946, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism, as I understand it." The first edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938. The book was not published in the United States until February 1952, when it appeared with an influential preface by Lionel Trilling. The only translation published in Orwell's lifetime was into Italian, in December 1948. A French translation by Yvonne Davet-with whom Orwell corresponded, commenting on her translation and providing explanatory notes-in 1938-39, was not published until five years after Orwell's death. Book Summary: Orwell served as a private, a corporal (cabo) and-when the informal command structure of the militia gave way to a conventional hierarchy in May 1937-as a lieutenant, on a provisional basis, in Catalonia and Aragon from December 1936 until June 1937. In June 1937, the leftist political party with whose militia he served (the POUM, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, an anti-Stalinist communist party) was declared an illegal organisation, and Orwell was consequently forced to flee. Having arrived in Barcelona on 26 December 1936, Orwell told John McNair, the Independent Labour Party's (ILP) representative there, that he had "come to Spain to join the militia to fight against Fascism." He also told McNair that "he would like to write about the situation and endeavour to stir working class opinion in Britain and France." McNair took him to the POUM barracks, where Orwell immediately enlisted. "Orwell did not know that two months before he arrived in Spain, the [Soviet law enforcement agency] NKVD's resident in Spain, Aleksandr Orlov, had assured NKVD Headquarters, 'the Trotskyist organisation POUM can easily be liquidated'-by those, the Communists, whom Orwell took to be allies in the fight against Franco."

Squeezed between more powerful France and Spain, Catalonia has endured a violent history. Its medieval empire that conquered Naples, Sicily and Athens was crushed by Spain. Its geography, with the Pyrenees falling sharply to the rugged Costa Brava, is tormented, too. Michael Eaude traces this history and its monuments: Roman Tarragona, celebrated by the poet Martial; Greek Empuries, lost for centuries beneath the sands; medieval Romanesque architecture in the Vall de Boi churches (a World Heritage Site) and Poblet and Santes Creus monasteries. He tells the stories of several of Catalonia's great figures: Abbot Oliva, who brought Moorish learning to Europe, the ruthless mercenary, Roger de Flor, and Verdaguer, handsome poet-priest. Catalonia is famous today for its twentieth-century art. This book focuses on the revolutionary Art Nouveau buildings (including the Sagrada Familia) of Antoni Gaudi. It also explores the region's artistic legacy: the young Picasso painting Barcelona’s vibrant slums; Salvador Dali, inspired by the twisted rocks of Cap de Creus to paint his landscapes of the human mind; and Joan Miro, discovering the colours of the red earth at Montroig.

As recently as the mid-2000s, Catalonia was described and analysed by scholars as exhibiting a non-secessionist nationalism and was seen within Europe and beyond as a role model for successful devolution which had much to teach other parts of the world. The Spanish state seemed to be on a journey towards an authentic federal order and was generally admired. However, the new century has been marked by an ever-growing independence movement, with 47.8 per cent of Catalonia voting in favour of independence in September 2015. Pro-independence mobilization has produced a rupture in political relations with the rest of Spain leading to a sovereignty struggle with Madrid. This book explores how an accumulation of long-, medium- and short-term factors have produced the current situation and why the Spanish territorial model has been unable or possibly, unwilling, to respond. The Catalan question is not purely a Spanish problem: it has direct implications for the traditional nation-state model, in Europe and beyond.

This is an ideal introduction to the whole history of Catalonia from the remotest times until the present. It is a rigorous and accessible vision aimed at everyone, which can be read quickly and easily. The book brings the Catalan past to all Catalans and to foreigners who, when they visit Catalonia, want a general understanding of what this country has been over its thousands of years of existence. This short history seeks to set out the formation of a nation with its own state, which played a key role in Europe for centuries. It also explains how this state was attacked for two centuries until its destruction on 11 September 1714 and the subsequent struggle by Catalans to be reborn from their ashes and recover their place in history.

"35 experts explain the causes which impel them to the separation through essays on Catalan history, economics, politics, language, and culture"--Cover.