On Spain's Costa Brava, passion and intrigue are everywhere - especially in the hearts of those who dwell there. As the dictator Franco teeters on the edge of overthrow, two couples are entwined. One is a husband and wife bored with the existence they have drifted into, the other a passionate, combative pair who relish every moment of life. Into this potent mix comes a young American seeking his missing lover - bringing a shadow of danger into the machinations already at work. Soon, loyalty will be tested and blood will be shed as the country of Spain prepares for revolution. And none of them - lovers, fighters, man or woman - will ever be the same.
The Wild Geese : The Irish brigades of France and Spain
In the early years of the English Civil War, a French traveller in England remarked that the Irish 'are better soldiers abroad than at home'. Between 1585 and 1818, over half a million Irish were lured from their homeland by promises of glory, money and honour in a constant emigration romantically styled 'The Flight of the Wild Geese'. Throughout this period, the Irish brigades in France and Spain participated in conflicts ranging from the wars of the Spanish and Austrian Succession to the Napoleonic Wars. Spanning over two centuries of history, this book examines the uniforms and organization of the Wild Geese in France and Spain.
Spain is a nation poised to suffer its worst internal strife in a thousand years. Certain well-placed Spanish diplomats sense it. Op-Center intelligence corroborates it. All the United States and Spain have to do is find a way to avert it. Before they can, an Op-Center representative is assassinated in Madrid on her way to a top secret diplomatic meeting. Now all fears are confirmed. Someone very powerful wants another Spanish civil war - no matter what the cost.
Drawing on criminal and other records to assess the character of violence among non-elite Spaniards, this work finds that appealing to honour was a rhetorical strategy, and that insults, gestures, and violence were all part of a varied repertoire that allowed both men and women to decide how to dispute issues of truth and reputation.
Silver, Trade and War - Spain and America in the Making of Early Modern Europe
The 250 years covered by Silver, Trade, and War marked the era of commercial capitalism, that bridge between late medieval and modern times. Spain, peripheral to western Europe in 1500, produced American treasure in silver, which Spanish convoys bore from Portobelo and Veracruz on the Carribbean coast across the Atlantic to Spain in exchange for European goods shipped from Sevilla (later, Cadiz). Spanish colonialism, the authors suggest, was the cutting edge of the early global economy.
