Why Catalans insist on their identity. The tragic fate of the millenary personality of Catalonia has rarely been fully appreciated abroad. Since the early eighteenth century its national voice has been submerged and fractured by a centralist state intent on its arbitrary, unitarian vision of a homogenized Spain. Catalan difference has emerged sporadically in the persons of such irrepressible geniuses as Gaudí, Dalí, Miró and Bigas Luna but, in the configuration of modern Europe, the relentlessinevitability of the unified state has imposed and re-imposed its singular cultural voice. The present volume attempts to equip the English-speaking reader with a fuller understanding of the uniqueness and quality of the culture of Catalonia by providing a comprehensive portfolio of the creative contribution of the nation across a broad spectrum of achievement. Though the artistic wealth of the medieval period is acknowledged appropriately, this study, with its focus on the modern age, privileges excellence not only in the more conventional, academic spheres of history, music, language, literature and the arts but also explores the value of more basic, popular experience inareas such as sport, cinema, festivals, cuisine and the city of Barcelona. DOMINIC KEOWN is Reader in Catalan at the University of Cambridge. CONTRIBUTORS: Elisenda Barbé, Robert Davidson, Alexander Ibarz, Louise Johnson, Dominic Keown, Tess Knighton, Jaume Martí-Olivella, Dorothy Noyes, Montserrat Roser i Puig, Antoni Segura, Miquel Strubell.

This collection of essays provides an historical, plural and original analysis of the Russian Revolution to mark its first centenary. It focuses on both regional aspects - such as the impact of the Revolution in Spain and Latin America - and major events, ideas and phenomena, including the importance of World War I, the birth of the Communist International and the definition of revolution and counterrevolution. The book will mainly appeal to academic audiences, as well as non-specialized readers interested in the major issues of the contemporary world. It offers new insights into an event that contributed to the shaping of the twentieth century and that is still fundamental to understanding the world of today.