A Concise History of Portugal

Rating:
Summary: It's not a very acurate Book
Review: I can not help saying that this is not a very good Book, I'm Portuguese and i have read many History Books and when i grabed this one and read it i was very disapointed to read many incorrect facts. I hope that in the fucture my country will be treated has it deserves.

Rating:
Summary: Poor is a Generous Rating
Review: I have been to Portugal many times and know quite a bit about the country's culture, it's people and history. I have to say that I must agree with most of the criticism that previous reviewers have written.

It is hard to believe that Birmingham, despite his vast experience with Portugal and things Portuguese, could have produced such a mediocre book. Parts of it are almost fictional. Too much of the information Birmingham presents is just plain wrong, particularly regarding Portugal's colonial empire in Africa. After reading this I got the distinct feeling that Birmingham has no real depth of knowledge about the Portuguese people, let alone the history of Portugal.

Rating:
Summary: A very deficient work.
Review: I have read many general and specialized historical pieces on Portugal. This book is by far the worse I have run across.

Cambridge University Press should be ashamed of publishing something as mediocre as this.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible, Useless Book
Review: If you are interested in the history of Portugal, this is one book you should NOT buy. I have read numerous books about Portugal's history, and have studied it as well. I don't know where the author of this book got his information from. It's totally inaccurate, with his opinions or observations stated as fact. What was he thinking? If I could give it less than one star, I would. It deserves nothing. Simply horrible, inaccurate, useless...

Rating:
Summary: A distorted picture of the country and its history
Review: In my view, this history of Portugal gives a distorted image of the country. It stresses the country's problems and plays down its achievements. The book pictures Portugal as a country struggling to establish a place on the world scene; modernise its economy and society; and secure political stability (!). In contrast, one can not find much on Portugal's gold age of the voyages of discovery and a worldwide maritime empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In fact there is not much on the first centuries of Portugal as a country. The whole book is rather biased, giving a one-sided and not particularly flattering picture of Portugal. I much prefer the more objective and well-balanced approach of 'Portugal: A Companion History, by Jose Hermano Saraiva et al.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to Portuguese history
Review: One has to wonder how the author could have taken so much material and compressed it into this slim, but meagre by no means, volume on the history of Portugal. Serving as an appetizer, the book whets one's appetite to learn more about Portugal and its fascinating history.

Rating:
Summary: Covers the people, culture, economics, politics, and history
Review: Students and travelers requiring an introduction to the people, culture, economics, politics, and history of Portugal will benefit substantially from reading A Concise History Of Portugal by David Birmingham (Emeritus Professor of Modern history, University of Kent at Canterbury). Now in its second edition, A Concise History Of Portugal is a modern account and the first to be written in English since the termination of dictatorship. No international history series can be considered complete without the inclusion of this Cambridge University Press edition of David Birmingham's A Concise History Of Portugal.