Aproximacion A La Historia De Espana (Approaches to the History of Spain), by Jaime Vicens Vives (1910-1960) is a concise, but authoritative work of general history about this important European country. Including rich commentary and references, it is addressed to the historical researcher, the Spanish culture aficionado, and the ordinary reader. It reveals the country’s historical path from the appearance of the first populations in Iberia up until the Civil War of 1936.
The Catalan historian Jaime Vicens Vives is regarded as one of Spain’s leading historians and one of the key renovators of modern Spanish historiography.
He graduated in 1930 from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona, where, in 1936, he defended his doctoral dissertation on “Ferdinand II and the City of Barcelona.”
In 1948, he was appointed Professor of Modern History at the Universities of Zaragoza and Barcelona. At the latter, he was also entrusted with the directorship of the Centre for International Historical Studies, which publishes two highly significant academic historical journals.
His scholarly work focuses primarily on the general history of Catalonia. However, he became widely known to the general public through two major works of general history: A Short History of Spain (published by our press) and Social and Economic History of Spain and the Americas, both of which achieved considerable publishing success and have gone through multiple editions.