This book offers a novel interdisciplinary approach to interpret the emergence of the Basque-Spanish nationalist conflict. It incorporates into sociological analysis the understanding of law put forward by legal realism and legal pluralism to answer some of the most pressing problems encountered in historical research on this topic. It does so by carrying out a comparative historical analysis which focuses on the puzzle produced by the political trajectories of two traditionally considered Basque territories between 1841 and 1936: Navarre and Vascongadas – the precursor of today’s Euskadi. Urasstabaso Ruiz argues that the historical and ideological trajectories of these territories need to be understood in relation to their local legal praxis and interpretations of law, which played a key role in how the authorities of these territories responded to the advent of modernisation. Overall, a fresh theoretical alternative is articulated, and the meaning of jurisdictional action is interpreted. Modern Societies and National Identities will appeal to academics interested in nationalism, the state and modernisation, particularly to those concerned with the Basque Country and the state of Spain.

From Napoleon's invasion of Portugal in 1807 to his final defeat at Waterloo, the English theatres played a crucial role in the mediation of the Peninsular campaign. In the first in-depth study of English theatre during the Peninsular War, Susan Valladares contextualizes the theatrical treatment of the war within the larger political and ideological axes of Romantic performance. Exploring the role of spectacle in the mediation of war and the links between theatrical productions and print culture, she argues that the popularity of theatre-going and the improvisation and topicality unique to dramatic performance make the theatre an ideal lens for studying the construction of the Peninsular War in the public domain. Without simplifying the complex issues involved in the study of citizenship, communal identities, and ideological investments, Valladares recovers a wartime theatre that helped celebrate military engagements, reform political sympathies, and register the public’s complex relationship with Britain’s military campaign in the Iberian Peninsula. From its nuanced reading of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Pizarro (1799), to its accounts of wartime productions of Shakespeare, description of performances at the minor theatres, and detailed case study of dramatic culture in Bristol, Valladares’s book reveals how theatrical entertainments reflected and helped shape public feeling on the Peninsular campaign.