A Brief History of Catalonia

It is also a region with a vibrant past and a rich trove of cultural treasures from artifacts of the Antiquity to the Romanesque monasteries to the buildings of Gaudi and the newly built Dalí Museum. With its considerable territories in the south of France, Italy and the Aegean, Catalonia dominated the western Mediterranean for many centuries and asserted itself with great self-confidence against a political centralism dictated by Madrid. Carlos Collado-Seidel tells the eventful history of Catalonia from the violent expulsion of the Moors through the industrial boom of the 19th century to the 21st century, in which this small autonomous region became one of the most appealing areas in Europe. This updated edition includes a chapter on the Catalan Independence Referendum of 2017 and the turbulence surrounding recent events.