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rfmcdonaldThe thing I'm going to miss most about formal education, I think, is having ready access to academic texts. They're fun to
Deborah L. Parsons' A Cultural History of Madrid: Modernism and the Urban Spectacle reminds me of Kathy Peiss' Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-Of-The-Century New York , inasmuch as it tries to recuperate an urban environment of entertainment, work, and personal life neglected at the time. Parsons begins by noting that Madrid has been neglected in studies of European modernist cities, in keeping with Spain's traditional exclusion from "Europe" the old catch-phrase being "Europe begins at the Pyrenees." With Spain's membership in the European Union, the exclusion of Spain from the collection of modern European nations has ended. A Culture History of Madrid is intended to bring Madrid into the circle of European modernist cities, by positioning it as a problematic implementation of the ideals of urban life given clearest form by Paris and New York, of Madrid as proof of how modernist theories were complicated by practice.
I'm unfamiliar with the details of 20th century Spanish history, and so I'm dependent on Parsons' narrative to guide me. Such a narrative, though. She describes a city in a state of tremendous flux, Madrid’s population doubling between 1900 and 1930 to almost one million and less than half of this population being indigenous to the city itself, the city becoming a socially magnetic, increasingly secular and cosmopolitan metropolis. She looks at Spanish fiction and non-fiction writers who depicted the development in Madrid of all manner of new entertainments including cinema, music halls, and dance, the general liberalization of social mores in Madrileño circles, and the ways that these new customs interacted with older Madrileño and Spanish traditions, often associated with "high" culture (in Talcott Parsons' sense of the world) and political conservatism. Madrid's modernist era ended when after the Spanish Civil War ended with the victory of the Fascists and their suppression of the modernists' Madrid, reemerging only with the transition to democracy in the 1970s. Parsons makes a good case for considering modernist Madrid important, on its own terms and in the broader context of modernity (whatever that is).
I knew only the broad outlines of the history of the British Isles following the collapse of the Roman Empire. I knew, for instance, that Germanic migrants from continental Europe began invading modern-day England from the 5th century CE on, eventually establishing permanent settlements and completely displacing the Britons either to the far west of Britain or to their colony of Brittany in northwestern Gaul. I knew that the Irish, at this time, converted to Catholicism and somewhat surprisingly ended up becoming a major bulwark of Western Christianity, sending missionaries to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons' petty states and eventually playing a role far greater than Ireland's size would indicate in the restoration of Classical knowledge in the Carolingian Renaissance. After Rome, edited by Thomas Charles-Edwards, did me a great justice in filling in the gaps.
After Rome examines how different nations--particularly the Irish, the English, and the post-British Welsh--formed after the Roman Empire's withdrawal. To a certain extent, of course, to speak of "nations" in the 5th century British Isles is anachronistic given the circumstances of the time, but the authors make a convincing argument that soem sentiment which at least paralleled nationalism and national identity was at work in the Britain of the Dark Ages. Charles-Edwards' essay was central, synthesizing research to provide a plausible outline of the major shifts in Britain's history and identity over the Dark Ages--I did not know, for instance, that one reason why the Saxons might have invaded Britain was that a Briton-Saxon alliance might have broken down. The role played by the different languages of the British Isles--Irish, Welsh, Anglo-Saxon, Latin, even Pictish--in forming national identities and evolving over time is examined interestingly in an essay by Andy Orchard, The other essays are equally interesting, particularly as they focus on the way that Christianity (the theology, the accompanying classical knowledge, the architecture, the associated social structures, the systems of time measurement) was absorbed, altered, and altering the peoples of the British Isles. I enjoyed it.
Deborah L. Parsons' A Cultural History of Madrid: Modernism and the Urban Spectacle reminds me of Kathy Peiss' Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-Of-The-Century New York , inasmuch as it tries to recuperate an urban environment of entertainment, work, and personal life neglected at the time. Parsons begins by noting that Madrid has been neglected in studies of European modernist cities, in keeping with Spain's traditional exclusion from "Europe" the old catch-phrase being "Europe begins at the Pyrenees." With Spain's membership in the European Union, the exclusion of Spain from the collection of modern European nations has ended. A Culture History of Madrid is intended to bring Madrid into the circle of European modernist cities, by positioning it as a problematic implementation of the ideals of urban life given clearest form by Paris and New York, of Madrid as proof of how modernist theories were complicated by practice.
I'm unfamiliar with the details of 20th century Spanish history, and so I'm dependent on Parsons' narrative to guide me. Such a narrative, though. She describes a city in a state of tremendous flux, Madrid’s population doubling between 1900 and 1930 to almost one million and less than half of this population being indigenous to the city itself, the city becoming a socially magnetic, increasingly secular and cosmopolitan metropolis. She looks at Spanish fiction and non-fiction writers who depicted the development in Madrid of all manner of new entertainments including cinema, music halls, and dance, the general liberalization of social mores in Madrileño circles, and the ways that these new customs interacted with older Madrileño and Spanish traditions, often associated with "high" culture (in Talcott Parsons' sense of the world) and political conservatism. Madrid's modernist era ended when after the Spanish Civil War ended with the victory of the Fascists and their suppression of the modernists' Madrid, reemerging only with the transition to democracy in the 1970s. Parsons makes a good case for considering modernist Madrid important, on its own terms and in the broader context of modernity (whatever that is).
I knew only the broad outlines of the history of the British Isles following the collapse of the Roman Empire. I knew, for instance, that Germanic migrants from continental Europe began invading modern-day England from the 5th century CE on, eventually establishing permanent settlements and completely displacing the Britons either to the far west of Britain or to their colony of Brittany in northwestern Gaul. I knew that the Irish, at this time, converted to Catholicism and somewhat surprisingly ended up becoming a major bulwark of Western Christianity, sending missionaries to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons' petty states and eventually playing a role far greater than Ireland's size would indicate in the restoration of Classical knowledge in the Carolingian Renaissance. After Rome, edited by Thomas Charles-Edwards, did me a great justice in filling in the gaps.
After Rome examines how different nations--particularly the Irish, the English, and the post-British Welsh--formed after the Roman Empire's withdrawal. To a certain extent, of course, to speak of "nations" in the 5th century British Isles is anachronistic given the circumstances of the time, but the authors make a convincing argument that soem sentiment which at least paralleled nationalism and national identity was at work in the Britain of the Dark Ages. Charles-Edwards' essay was central, synthesizing research to provide a plausible outline of the major shifts in Britain's history and identity over the Dark Ages--I did not know, for instance, that one reason why the Saxons might have invaded Britain was that a Briton-Saxon alliance might have broken down. The role played by the different languages of the British Isles--Irish, Welsh, Anglo-Saxon, Latin, even Pictish--in forming national identities and evolving over time is examined interestingly in an essay by Andy Orchard, The other essays are equally interesting, particularly as they focus on the way that Christianity (the theology, the accompanying classical knowledge, the architecture, the associated social structures, the systems of time measurement) was absorbed, altered, and altering the peoples of the British Isles. I enjoyed it.
