Working both chronologically and thematically, the volume examines Portugal's medieval history, the age of exploration, twentieth century dictatorship, a democratic revolution as well as its food, music and defining national characteristics. This brief history of Portugal attempts to not only illuminate the high points of global exploration and empire that most readers are familiar with but, in an examination of the social history and character of the nation, to discuss the factors that have led to its relative poverty and isolation in relation to modern Europe.
The long dictatorship of twentieth-century strongman Antonio Salazar, as well as recent diplomatic and economic situations, is studied alongside such cultural traditions as fado (the national music) and the zesty Portuguese cuisine. What compelled the great overseas Portuguese discoveries is addressed, after which Hatton identifies the conditions that undermined Portugal's new wealth gained from colonizing enterprises in Africa, Asia, and the Americas and that, ironically, inexorability to the nation's decline. Affection for and sober views of his subject impart a geniality and balance to his account of the development of the Portuguese nation, and his book itself answers the need for a good general history for lay readers.
The question posed by the history of Portugal is, How could a nation fall so precipitously from glorious empire-builder in the vanguard of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century age of discovery to poor backwater of Europe, languishing outside the sphere of international influence? The author, a Lisbon-based English correspondent, rests his answer on years of studying Portuguese history and the Portuguese national character. This informational and entertaining account of Portugal, old and new, is a required traveler's companion book." The Portuguese: A Modern History is a personal perspective from someone who deeply understands the history, the people and the culture of a country full of contrasts and contradictions that has so much to offer.
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