Catalonia: A Cultural History by Michael EaudeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've read this book before my first travel to Barcelona and Sitges.
I can recommend it to anyone travelling to Catalonia and looking for a deeper historical context behind the great cultural monuments of Catalonia (architecture, paintings, literature, music) compared to a Lonely Planet type of a travel guide. It has definitely given me better understanding of Catalan psyche - reflected in the way Catalonia looks and feels today from a stranger perspective.
When reading, it really felt the author was a fan of Catalonia (which is good), at the same time being quite critical about many of its historical and contemporary developments.
In some places the book might have benefited from a wider historical context (it assumed the reader was rather well aware of general history of Spain), in some places it felt too detailed (like verbal description of some details of buildings). In some places it was too much influenced by author's political views. However, there is a clearly a lot of research behind the book, citations of several other authors - and last but not least - love for this unique region in Europe.
