Iberian Worlds

Global Iberia locates Spain and Portugal in the contemporary globalizing world. Through synoptic chapters on the peninsula's geography, regional histories, and longstanding role as the bridge between the Arab / North African world and Europe, McDonogh uses Spain (an, to a lesser extent, Portugal) to address the key issues generated by contemporary globalization-identity, migration, hybridity, and the new forms of social life that are emerging as a consequence. As well, he considers supra-state structures like the EU.
After centuries as a major empire, Spain degenerated into a cloistered backwater. With the death of Franco in the mid-70s, it underwent an epochal transformation. Since then, Spain has experienced dramatic social and political transformations, becoming a vibrant democracy and a major tourist destination. Barcelona has become a "world" city, and the nation's cultural output is now on par with other major European countries. Spain and Portugal have long histories at the cutting edge of world relations, managing far-flung empires, and McDonogh stresses this historical perspective. But he also foregrounds the vast present world fostered by the "Iberian project" - Latin America, Southern Europe, parts of Asia and Africa, in which Spain and Portugal possess enormous power.