What did Europe owe Spain in the eighteenth century? This infamous question, posed by Nicolas Masson de Morvilliers in the Encyclopedie methodique, caused an international uproar at the height of the Enlightenment. His polemical article 'Espagne', with its tabloid-like prose, resonated with a French-reading public that blamed the Spanish Empire for France's eroding economy. Spain was outraged, and responded by publishing its own translation-rebuttal, the article 'Espana' penned by Julian de Velasco for the Spanish Encyclopedia metodica. In this volume, the original French and Spanish articles are presented in facing-page English translations, allowing readers to examine the content and rhetorical maneuvers of Masson's challenge and Velasco's riposte. This comparative format, along with the editors' critical introduction, extensive annotations, and an accompanying bibliographical essay, reveals how knowledge was translated and transferred across Europe and the transatlantic world. The two encyclopedia articles bring to life a crucial period of Spanish history, culture and commerce, while offering an alternative framework for understanding the intellectual underpinnings of a Spanish Enlightenment that differed radically from French philosophie. Ultimately, this book uncovers a Spain determined to claim its place in the European Enlightenment and on the geopolitical stage.

What is it to practice history in an age in which photographs exist? What is the impact of photographs on the core historiographical practices which define the discipline and shape its enquiry and methods? In Photographs and the Practice of History, Elizabeth Edwards proposes a new approach to historical thinking which explores these questions and redefines the practices at the heart of this discipline. Structured around key concepts in historical methodology which are recognisable to all undergraduates, the book shows that from the mid-19th century onward, photographs have influenced historical enquiry. Exposure to these mass-distributed cultural artefacts is enough to change our historical frameworks even when research is textually-based. Conceptualised as a series of 'sensibilities' rather than a methodology as such, it is intended as a companion to 'how to' approaches to visual research and visual sources. Photographs and the Practice of History not only builds on existing literature by leading scholars: it also offers a highly original approach to historiographical thinking that gives readers a foundation on which to build their own historical practices.