Looks at when, why and how Spain declined in status from its pre-eminent position as a leading world power in the seventeenth century, examining the methodologies and schools of inquiry that have shaped the discourse and how historians’ perceptions have been influenced by time and circumstance.

General editor’s forewordPrefaceIntroduction1. The sixteenth century: the Black Legend2. The seventeenth century: arbitrismo and decline3. The eighteenth century: enlightened opinion4. The nineteenth century: liberalism and conservatism5. The early twentieth century: imperialism and decline6. The mid-twentieth century: inter-disciplinary perspectives7. The later twentieth century: the general crisis of the seventeenth century8. The current debate: decline reappraisedFurther readingIndex

The circumstances surrounding the transformation of Spain from its position as a dominant imperial power in the sixteenth century to that of a nation which suffered a dramatic reversal of its political and economic fortunes in the seventeenth century has generated one of the most seminal ‘rise and decline’ debates in early modern history and produced volumes of scholarship. However, the subject has not hitherto been approached from a historiographical perspective. The present book aims to bridge that gap and contribute to other case studies of major debates in world history covered in the Issues in Historiography series. It assesses how the debate has evolved from the sixteenth century to the present day via a study of the historians who participated in it, the ideological, political and philosophical influences that shaped their outlook on events and the trends in historical research, methodology and discourse that have informed it. It demonstrates how the decline thesis has frequently been contested, adapted, revised and even overturned altogether by successive generations of international scholars. It illustrates how the debate has defined the long view of Spain’s historical trajectory by building upon its predisposition for greatness and failure and indentifying on-going fluctuations in its fortunes as a continuum of past events. The book will be of interest to students, lecturers and scholars of European History and Hispanic Studies and incorporates the work of Spanish historians on the subject of Spain’s decline for the benefit of an English-language readership.

Rawlings’ well informed, finely structured and clearly written book makes a valuablecontribution to the study of one of the main themes in Spanish historiography.All in all, Rawlings’ book will be an indispensable tool for scholarsand teachers of early modern Spain.