More than anything else, this book is an extended essay which points out some of the problems that have been dealt with by historians of modern Spain and seeks to provide credible explanations for that country's evolution over the last two centuries. Since I first taught the history of Spain fifteen years ago, my ideas have evolved continually, and the interpretations put forward here represent only my current thinking on the subject. Tentative though they are, I hope they will be of use to others who share my interest in Spain.

A number of Spaniards have given me precious help. Don Jose Luis Cano, of the review Insula, and Professor Jose Montesinos, of Berkeley, have broadened my scanty knowledge of literary currents. Dona Gimena Menendez Pidal, director of Colegio Estudio of Madrid, discussed contemporary education and cultural activities with me, and the author and editor Don Arturo del Hoyo gave me insights into various aspects of Spanish life since the thirties. Don Aniceto Garcia Villar, professor at the School of Ceramics of Madrid, furnished most of my information on rural dress and culture in the early twentieth century Professors Luis Monguio and Rafael Perez de la Dehesa, of Berkeley, and Antoni Bernalte, of Barcelona, read critically an early version of the manuscript; and so did Professor Joan Connelly Ullman, of the University of Washington, who if not Spanish by nationality virtually is by her knowledge of the country and empathy for its people.

It would be impossible to recall all of the students who in discussions or in their writing have helped me formulate my ideas, but certain persons stand out. David Fogarty helped bring up to date my information on the period before 1700. I have drawn on the seminar papers of Edward James Blakely, Jane Alice Dawson, John W. Levenson, and [vi] Robert H. Richheimer. In her doctoral dissertation "The Moderado Party in Spain, 1820-1854" (University of California, Berkeley, 1965), Nancy A. Rosenblatt provides a new and clearer picture of the early years of Isabel II, on which I have relied heavily in describing the origins of the Moderado order.

Because of the general nature of the book, I have used footnotes only for direct quotations and when I wished to call attention to unusual or especially helpful studies. Much of the information on the eighteenth century and Napoleonic period has come from my own research, some of it not yet published. Standard works, including those recommended at the end of the book or cited in the notes, have been my major source for the period 1814-1939. Since the end of the Civil War, I have turned to newspapers, the accounts of Spaniards and foreign observers, and official government statistics and other publications. Many of these last I obtained in the libraries of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Information and Tourism. I am grateful to their head librarians, Dona Vicenta Cortes Alonso and Dona Celina Iniquez, for their enthusiastic help in ferreting out the kinds of publications I needed.

I was in Spain for extended visits from 1950 to 1952, in 1959-60, in 1963-64, and in 1969 for research on topics in Spanish history in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. During these occasions I kept notes on my observations of the current situation, which proved of great use for the chapters on Spain under Franco. The general lines of my interpretation, not only of recent developments but of the last two centuries, originated as much in these personal observations as in written sources. The reader may judge how successful this approach has been.

Richard Herr