Category Archives: Books

New Book: ETA: Estimated Time of Arrest by Delphine Pontvieux

Delphine Pontvieux, a member of the forum, has just released her novel ETA: Estimated Time of Arrest… WRONG PLACE… After participating in a pro-separatist march that turned violent in January of 1992, 21-year-old Lorenzo Lartaun Izcoa is wrongly charged with the fatal bombing of a police station in his home town. Irun is a small […]

Christine Bender: Perils and Hardships Unimaginable

A historian’s greatest challenge is to convey the excitement and drama of history.  This is especially true for more obscure subjects, as the reader doesn’t already come with some emotional attachment.  But this is exactly where Christine Bender excels.  By using fiction as her vehicle to explore historical events, Christine is able to delve into […]

Dietary customs of Boise’s Basques

You can tell the story of who people are by what they eat — stated Colleen Asumendi Fillmore, PhD, RD, LD All who know the Basques know that food is an immensely important aspect of their culture.  Colleen Asumendi Fillmore knows this better than most, having studied the dietary culture of the Basques of Boise.  […]

Reluctant Modernization by Andreas Hess

I just got this notice of a new book on Basque culture and was asked to spread the word. Reluctant Modernization: Plebeian Culture and Moral Economy in the Basque Country by Andreas Hess Publisher: Peter Lang, Oxford ISBN number: 978-3-03911-908-0 Three institutions that are of particular importance to Basque history and culture form the main […]

Sails of Fortune by Christine Echeverria Bender

Having read Laurence Bergreen’s description of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, Over the Edge of the World (see this post), I was very interested in Christine Echeverria Bender’s take of the same voyage, Sails of Fortune, partially because I found Bergreen’s account so fascinating, but also because I knew Bender’s would cast a more favorable […]

Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen

I originally wrote these thoughts in August of 2005 and thought I’d posted them here, but just realized I hadn’t.  In looking back, there are clearly some errors in what I wrote, which I’ve corrected. Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen, tells the story of the first voyage around the world, the […]

The Basque Country: Insight into its culture, history, society and institutions

Finding nice overviews of the Basque Country — its history, culture, traditions, and language — is rare in English.  There are, of course, The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky and The Basque Country: A Cultural History by Paddy Woodworth.  But, both of those are rather lengthy and certainly have their authors’ respective […]

The Basque Country: A Cultural History by Paddy Woodworth

Few and far between are the “popular” books on the Basque Country that give an overview of the people, the land, and the culture of Euskal Herria.  The Basque Histroy of the World, by Mark Kurlansky, is probably the most well-known.  Now, Paddy Woodworth, author of Dirty Wars, Clean Hands: ETA, the GAL, and Spanish […]