Description
Book SynopsisThis volume revises the model that is most often used to describe and explain the history of nineteenth-century Spain: the interpretation of political changes between 1812 and 1868 as different stages of an integrated process of bourgeois revolution.
Trade Review"Jesus Cruz offers convincing evidence with regard to the political and economic elite of Madrid, who largely dominated early liberal politics....This is an unusually stimulating and original dissertation-book, based on extensive prosopographical research, that makes a distinctive contribution to the social history of Spain. It merits broad attention and should provoke extensive new discussion and research on modern elites in other parts of the country as well." Stanley G. Payne, Journal of Social History
"This solidly researched monograph challenges conventional interpretations about the social and economic background of Spanish liberals....Through detailed analysis of family histories, Cruz has shown that the liberal revolution was accomplished by already well-established individuals who moved easily to dominate the institutions and economy of the liberal state....This study offers an original and well-researched interpretation of a complex question....It makes a positive contribution to the history of Spanish liberalism in its formative period." William J. Callahan, Canadian Journal of History
"...the volume demands and deserves careful attention to appreciate its data and the arguments constructed thereon." Gary W. McDonogh, American Historical Review
The work of Jesus Cruz constitutes a magnificent example of the analytical tensions produced in European historiography by the failure of the classic theory...of the bourgeois revolution." Isabel Burdiel, Journal of Modern History
Table of ContentsPart I. Careers, Business and Fortunes: 1. Introduction; 2. Merchants; 3. Bankers; 4. Bureaucrats and professionals; 5. Politicians; Part II. The Museum of Families: Strategies of Reproduction: 6. Habitus, solidarity and authority; 7. Kinship, friendship and patronage; 8. Conclusion: rethinking the Spanish Revolution.
