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hirvimaki's review
4.0
Enjoyable, as all Kurlansky books are. To the detractors, you have to keep in mind how Kurlansky writes. This is not a PhD dissertation or a text book, with pretentions of being the beginning and end of research about Basques, this is a Trivial Pursuit game with your smart friend or a casual but fascinating conversation with that stranger on a plane who shares tidbits of knowledge with you about one of his favourite subjects. That's it. No pretentions. It's just a collection of interesting information, some erudite and some banal. If you approach Kurlansky's books thinking you are going to get a treatise on a subject (Basque, Cod, Salt, Non-Violence) you are going to be disappointed, but that's on you. Kurlansky researches a subject that interests him and then he grinds all that up and puts together a narrative that, while certainly educational and informative, is foremost entertaining and easily read.
outcolder's review
3.0
This satisfied most of my curiosity about the Basques, but there’s now stuff I understand less, like the Carlist wars, what the heck? Kurlansky is at his best when writing about food of course and there’s plenty of recipes in here that I hope to never be confronted with in real life. The chapters about the ETA and other nationalist political organizations, the bits about the antifascist war, the Franco era, and the Transition were solid, but deeply sad. Although I did laugh at the expression “one more pothole, one less asshole.” I was disappointed that Mondragon doesn’t even get a mention, that pre-modern Basque economy is called “capitalist” while the economic losses of the 1980s are in a chapter called “Surviving Democracy “... democracy does not equal capitalism. And I don’t know, but shouldn’t anarchism have gotten more of a discussion in a book that spends significant ink on Basque literature? Maybe not.
It’s a tall order, to get it all in one book about the Basques and there’s not a lot out there in English which kind of adds pressure to get it all in. And topics like the history and development of the Basque language could have gotten too technical so Kurlansky deserves praise for keeping it so balanced.
It’s a tall order, to get it all in one book about the Basques and there’s not a lot out there in English which kind of adds pressure to get it all in. And topics like the history and development of the Basque language could have gotten too technical so Kurlansky deserves praise for keeping it so balanced.
hellojohnpaul's review
4.25
Great overall history of Basque culture. Informed my trip to Spanish Basque ahead of time and I could enjoy it all the more!
dqzh1579's review
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.0
wescovington's review
5.0
The Basque are a hard people to understand. They speak a language isolated from the rest of the world and they've chosen that to define themselves. Kurlansky makes a somewhat mysterious people into more than an enigma. He does not gloss or glorify the terrorist activities of the ETA either. He presents the Basque for good and bad.
hellosagar's review against another edition
5.0
Actually happened to get through this whole history before a visit to Basque Country, and it was fascinating. What a well-written and compelling history of a group of people I knew relatively little about. If you have even a bit of interest in the culture, this is the book for you.
delafork's review
4.0
An interesting insight into a unique and complex culture. If you, like most people, have only heard about the Basques as separatists, this book will open your eyes.