This is a comprehensive study in English of political thought in Spain during the Renaissance. In the early sixteenth century Castile experienced two major constitutional crises caused by the accession of a Habsburg ruler (shortly to become Holy Roman Emperor) to her throne, and by the discovery and conquest of America. Politically, these circumstances created a bizarre situation in which the venerable idea of medieval empire was forced to co-exist with a novel, imperial vision made inevitable by expansion in the new world. The strain imposed on Castile's constitutional fabric stimulated the most significant developments of Spanish political thought in the Renaissance. Against this background, Professor Fernández-Santamaria surverys the contribution of a number of eminent writers from diverse intellectual traditions who endeavoured to apply established political assumptions to these unprecedented circumstances.

Spanish identity in the age of nations offers the first comprehensive account in any language of the formation and development of Spanish national identity from ancient times to the present. Much has been written on French, British and German nationalism, but remarkably little has been published on Spanish nationalism. Paradoxically, even in Spain there is much more on Basque, Catalan and other regional nationalisms than on Spanish identity. As a result, this study fills an enormous gap in the literature on Spanish history. This book traces the emergence and evolution of an initial collective identity within the Iberian Peninsula from the Middle Ages to the end of the ancien regime based on the Catholic religion, loyalty to the Crown and Empire. The adaptation of this identity to the modern era, beginning with the Napoleonic Wars and the liberal revolutions, forms the crux of this study. None the less, the book also embraces the highly contested evolution of the national identity in the twentieth century, including both the Civil War and the Franco Dictatorship. Álvarez-Junco ́s pioneering study was awarded both the National Prize for Literature in Spain and the Fastenrath Prize by the Spanish Royal Academy

In his encyclical Aeterni Patris (1879), Pope Leo XIII expressed the conviction that the renewed study of the philosophical legacy of Saint Thomas Aquinas would help Catholics to engage in a dialogue with secular modernity while maintaining respect for Church doctrine and tradition. As a result, the neo-scholastic framework dominated Catholic intellectual production for nearly a century thereafter. This volume assesses the societal impact of the Thomist revival movement, with particular attention to the juridical dimension of this epistemic community. Contributions from different disciplinary backgrounds offer a multifaceted and in-depth analysis of many different networks and protagonists of the neo-scholastic movement, its institutions and periodicals, and its conceptual frameworks. Although special attention is paid to the Leuven Institute of Philosophy and Faculty of Law, the volume also discloses the neo-Thomist revival in other national and transnational contexts. By highlighting diverse aspects of its societal and legal impact, Neo-Thomism in Action argues that neo-scholasticism was neither a sterile intellectual exercise nor a monolithic movement. The book expands our understanding of how Catholic intellectual discourse communities were constructed and how they pervaded law and society during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

The Spanish Civil War is one of the most studied events in modern European history. This book analyses the main obstacles to the consolidation of democracy in Spain and debates the principal stereotypes of the traditional historiography of both left and right.