Origins of Catalan Nationalism, 1770-1898

Angel Smith is Reader in Modern Spanish History at the University of Leeds, UK. He has worked predominately in the areas of Spanish labour and social history and national identities and nationalisms in Spain. His most recent works are The Agony of Spanish Liberalism: From Revolution to Dictatorship, 1913–23 (edited with Francisco J. Romero Salvadó), Historical Dictionary of Spain, 2nd ed. (2009) and Anarchism, Revolution and Reaction: Catalan Labour and the Crisis of the Spanish State, 1898–1923 (2007)..

“This timely book … offers a constructivist perspective on identity formation. As such, it is a welcome addition to a literature that too often upholds a version of historicist teleology that is found even in the work of noted scholars like Jaume Vicens Vives. … this comprehensive text is a must–read for students and scholars of Spanish history and for those interested in the roots of political controversies in contemporary Spain.” (Scott Eastman, Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, Vol. 41 (1), 2016)

• Introduction 1. King, Patria and Nation: Catalonia from the Ancien Regime to Liberalism 2. Catalonia in the Spanish Nation-Building Project, 1814-68 3. Liberalism, Romanticism and the Consolidation of a Catalan Cultural Identity, 1814-74 4. Centralization, Decentralization and the Construction of a Catalan Political Regionalism, 1814-74 5. The Catalan Haute Bourgeoisie and the State, 1875-98 6. The Travails of Liberal Catalanism, 1875-98 7. The Church, the Right, and the Forging of a Catalan Nationalist Movement, 1875-98 Conclusions