Civilización y cultura de España (4th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Convoluted and confusing
Review: I bought this book because it was required reading for a class. The text is written in such a way as to be unclear and and very unweildy for third year Spanish students. The vocabulary was very advanced and I found it more helpful to read about the history of Spain on the internet or in the encyclopedia for an overview before thinking about attempting this book. This is not a book that I would strongly recommend to an intermediate student.

Rating:
Summary: confusing
Review: I have been reading this book and think the format is awful. He skips around time periods and has details of one thing and then nothing on another. There is no visual aid for where the people came from and occupied Spain. There also is no outline or good intro for the book.

Rating:
Summary: Convoluted and confusing
Review: I took Professor Cantarino's class in college & we used his book, Civilizacion y Cultura, as our textbook. The class itself was terrific and the textbook was excellent. It is the BEST book available if you are interested in Spain's history, art, architecture, and music over the last 2000 years. I still have the book.END

Rating:
Summary: The best book available to learn all about Spain!!!!!
Review: I took Professor Cantarino's class in college & we used his book, Civilizacion y Cultura, as our textbook. The class itself was terrific and the textbook was excellent. It is the BEST book available if you are interested in Spain's history, art, architecture, and music over the last 2000 years. I still have the book.END

Rating:
Summary: An excellent overview of Spanish culture, art and history
Review: I used Cantarino's "Civilización y cultura de España" for some of my classes in Burgos, Spain, and found it to be an excellent supplement to the material that we were studying in class (from prehistory and Atapuerca to post-Franco democratic Spain). Each chapter covers a specific period in Spanish history, along with notes on art, architecture, music, literature for each time period. I found the level of Spanish to be very easy, although it might prove a bit challenging to second or third year Spanish students. The look of the book is a bit outdated (colour photos would have been nice for the art photos!), and the "history" ends at 1996 or so. Overall, a worthy investment, complete with maps, a timeline, a glossary, and plenty of useful, compact information about the most important events and people in Spain throughout the ages.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent overview of Spanish culture, art and history
Review: I used Cantarino's "Civilización y cultura de España" for some of my classes in Burgos, Spain, and found it to be an excellent supplement to the material that we were studying in class (from prehistory and Atapuerca to post-Franco democratic Spain). Each chapter covers a specific period in Spanish history, along with notes on art, architecture, music, literature for each time period. I found the level of Spanish to be very easy, although it might prove a bit challenging to second or third year Spanish students. The look of the book is a bit outdated (colour photos would have been nice for the art photos!), and the "history" ends at 1996 or so. Overall, a worthy investment, complete with maps, a timeline, a glossary, and plenty of useful, compact information about the most important events and people in Spain throughout the ages.