The Basque History of the World


Reading The Spanish Civil War piqued my interest in the Basque people. Luckily, one day a whimsical little book at our local bookstore caught my eye: The Basque History of the World , by Mark Kurlansky. Before reading this book, all I knew about the Basques was:
  • They're located in the northwestern part of Spain
  • They're fiercely independent
  • and, they speak a language that seemly has no origins or connections to any other language in the world
After reading Kurlansky's informative and fun read, I learned a lot more.

This is not your standard-issue history book; intermingled in the narrative are poems, and stirred up in the stories are various Basque recipes. This lends a peculiar, but altogether satisfying, texture to the whole book. Fun to read, I was able to complete it in a couple of days.

However, even after reading the book, the origins of the Basque people are still mysterious to me; what was their social evolution; did they and their culture spring up full-formed at some given pre-historic time? Why no connections to any other language?

These remain mysteries; but, the book did reveal a lot I didn't know. Didn't realize that 3 of the Basque provinces are actually in France. Didn't appreciate the ETA's history (commonly known as a terrorist group) and current struggles. And had not known how much cultural repression had been hoisted on them -- banning of the Euskera language and literature.

Note, though: Kurlansky is a journalist, and doesn't have the historians eye for details and accuracy. He prefers to be entertaining. He's definitely swoon by the Basques, so of course leans in their political direction and aspiration; so, others may find the book biased. I haven't read any other Basque or Spanish histories, so I can't judge on this just yet.

The Basque history is still not over. They may still have a chance at an independent nation; or at least greater autonomy within the "commonwealth" of Spain. We'll see.

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Posted: Wed - August 4, 2004 at 11:04 PM

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