A01=Luke Stegemann
Author_Luke Stegemann
Category=NHD
Category=WTHL
Cervantes
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_travel
Goya
Iberian
Madrid City guide
Madrid social history
Madrid travel guide
Quevedo
Spain
Spanish Civil War
Velazquez
Product details
- ISBN 9780300286267
- Dimensions: 127 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 13 May 2025
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The miraculous story of Madrid—how a village became a great world city
For centuries Madrid was an insignificant settlement on the central Iberian plateau. Under its Muslim rulers the town was fortified and enlarged, but even after the Reconquista it remained secondary to nearby Toledo. But Madrid’s fortunes dramatically shifted in the sixteenth century, becoming the centre of a vast global empire.
Luke Stegemann tells the surprising story of Madrid’s flourishing, and its outsize influence across the world. From Cervantes and Quevedo to Velázquez and Goya, Spain’s capital has been home to some of Europe’s most influential artists and thinkers. It formed a vital link between Europe and the Americas and became a cauldron of political dissent—not least during the Spanish Civil War, when the city was on the frontline in the fight against fascism.
Stegemann places Madrid and its people in global context, showing how the city—fast overtaking Barcelona as a centre of international finance and cultural tourism—has become a melting pot at the heart of Europe and the wider Hispanic world.
For centuries Madrid was an insignificant settlement on the central Iberian plateau. Under its Muslim rulers the town was fortified and enlarged, but even after the Reconquista it remained secondary to nearby Toledo. But Madrid’s fortunes dramatically shifted in the sixteenth century, becoming the centre of a vast global empire.
Luke Stegemann tells the surprising story of Madrid’s flourishing, and its outsize influence across the world. From Cervantes and Quevedo to Velázquez and Goya, Spain’s capital has been home to some of Europe’s most influential artists and thinkers. It formed a vital link between Europe and the Americas and became a cauldron of political dissent—not least during the Spanish Civil War, when the city was on the frontline in the fight against fascism.
Stegemann places Madrid and its people in global context, showing how the city—fast overtaking Barcelona as a centre of international finance and cultural tourism—has become a melting pot at the heart of Europe and the wider Hispanic world.
Luke Stegemann is a writer and cultural historian, and an honorary Madrileño. He has written on art, politics, and history for a wide range of Spanish and Australian publications, and is the author of The Beautiful Obscure and Amnesia Road.
