A cultural excursion worth taking

Most peoples of the world have struggled to overcome geography, politics, cultural invasion, etc. and most have lost the vitality of their roots. Mark Kurlansky provides a compelling and well researched and reasoned description of the Basques and their extraordinary culture and history. Highly recommended.

8 people found this helpful

Master Work

First it did hit me that the title was: The BASQUE History of the World... and not A History of the Basque. Perfectly named because you will end up seeing things from a Basque viewpoint..and that is very hard for just anyone to write without getting inside the culture itself.
This was a masterwork.
So I guess I wasn't surprised when I realize who the author was and that I have enjoyed every one of his books.
I will never delete this work from my reading library.
Enjoyable reading, great reference - and not a bad bit of ethnic cooking - as a person of Italian descent - food TELLS volumes about a people.

6 people found this helpful

Fascinating

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was very informative and an entertaining listen; whilst not caring for the recipes they were few. previously I was completely ignorant concerning Basque history and culture; which is probably the case for most Europeans. One of the oldest surving European cultures, but very much alive. I very much liked the telling of so much world history from another perspective. I am inspired to visit the region now.

5 people found this helpful

An enduring people

Mark Kurlansky is a fantastic author, and his books have been gateways to understanding for me. This book is no exception. It is an excellent history of an enduring people.

4 people found this helpful

A Bit too Biased

This is supposed to be the history of the Basques. The writer, however, is too besotted by his subject matter to give an objective account of the Basque history. While Spanish duplicity and violence is given great attention, the same cannot be said for the Basque responses to Spanish actions or instances of Basque provocation. I'm still looking for a better history book or books regarding the Iberian peninsula.

3 people found this helpful

My family is from bilbao

I am more than delighted to have learned about my heritage it is a great book and would encourage all basque heritage to read it

3 people found this helpful

First Rate

INFORMATIVE about this unique and ancient ethnic group, ENTERTAINING with many lovely cultural diversions into the local and traditional foods, and INSIGHTFUL about why the Basques are a chronic problem for the old-guard central government which has never been cleared of its fascist roots.

1 person found this helpful

We listened to this as we drove through Euskadia

One of my fondest memories of our wandering travels was when we had this book as an audio companion in our rental car as we drove through the Basque areas. Kurlansky;s description of the people, the food and the history of the area was an enrichment I hadn't planned. I meant to listen to this book before we went on our 16 day driving trip, but I ended up packing this and bringing it along on our trip. My husband and I had a great education that helped bring context to the places we were driving through. Bayonne, San Sebastian, Getaria, Pamplona and Bilbao, places that were little pieces of our general understanding of history and literature through our lives became richer from listening to this book. And, the description of Guernica in the book that came as we were driving into Guernica made this indescribable. This may have not been a scholarly tome that some listeners were expecting, but our experience was wonderful, and has led us to a great appreciation of the people who culturally have always been in and from this area.

1 person found this helpful

Journalists are rarely good historians

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

It is an interesting story, at times. I thought it would be a more scholarly work. My mistake. I should have investigated it more before purchasing. Some of my ancestors were Basque so I was looking forward to a detailed history of the people. Mostly what I got from the book is there is little known about origins of the Basque or their language. The work improves when it turns to the Spanish Civil War and the Marcos era. The description of Guernica was chilling.

Did The Basque History of the World inspire you to do anything?

Seek out more scholarly works on the Basque.

1 person found this helpful

Another winner from Mark Kurlansky

I've really enjoyed several other of Mark's books, and this one definitely continued the trend. Both enlightening and engaging.