Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age (Daily life series, 13)

Spain's Golden Age is one of the great historical paradoxes. At the beginning of the Golden Age, Spain had a prosperous Empire that stretched from the Phillipines in the East, to the Americas and southern Italy and the Flanders in Europe. Her military and economic might reigned supreme. Yet by the end of this century, Spain's power was in rapid decline. The benefits of Empire slipped through Spain's hands like so many grains of sand. At the same time that Spain's political and economic power were in decline, a Golden Age of Spanish culture was also taking place. The Golden Age saw the rise of such prominent Spanish writers as the poets Miguel de Quevedo and Luis Gongora and the playwrites, Lope de Vega and Calderon de la Barca. This is also the era of great Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. So how do you examine an era of rich cultural achievements and simulataneous economic and political decline? The French Historian, Marcelin Defourneaux explores these contrasts by examining contemprary accounts of Spanish life. We hear what travellers, playwrights and writers thought about every day life during the Golden Age. There are interesting sections on student life, military service, concepts of honor and popular religion. The final chapter on the role of the picaro in Spanish life is especially rich. "Daily Life in Spain" is popular history. After reading this book, one develops an "impression" of what life must have been like during this century. This is not academic history and I would be surprised if it showed up in the bibliography of a serious work of Spanish history. However, what I found enjoyable about the book is to see how much of Golden Age culture has survived through the centuries. It is these cultural "survivals" that unite contemporary Latin America with Spain. At times when Defourneaux was describing Seventeenth Century Spain, he could have been talking about current day rural Chihuahua. It is always interesting to see how the past shapes our current lives.