A declaration of interest – Madrid is a favourite city and in Madrid Luke Stegemann does it justice.
The history of Spain is incredibly rich, but many people mistake Madrid for a relatively recent establishment. Stegemann traces the history back to its foundation as a Moorish fort and its subsequent incarnations as an important frontier town during the Reconquista, its role as an important and often rebellious regional power in Castille and its ultimate promotion to capital under Philip II in the late 16th century.
At this point the story becomes a lot more familiar and Stegemann does a good job rounding up and carefully displaying the numerous themes which demand treatment: the art, architecture and literature that make Baroque Spain so fascinating. Stegemann has no time for the leyenda negra – the 16th century protestant take on the Spanish Empire and makes a compelling argument for the Spanish Empire being a cutting-edge operation for its time – the sophistication of Cervantes did not come from a world of simple religious fanatics.
Of course a lot happened after the Habsburg Golden Age. We learn about the Madrid of the Napoleonic wars, the political instability and economic development of the 19th century, the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.
Stegemann takes the story up to 2020 – the pandemic. Along the way the reader gets a detailed insight into the peculiar urban eco system that produces one of the world’s most dynamic cities. Highly recommended to anyone who finds Barcelona overtouristed.
Book review by Grant Hansen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHORLuke Stegemann is a writer and cultural historian. He has written on art, politics and history for a wide range of Australian and Spanish publications. His study of the processes of historic memory in Australia and Spain, Amnesia Road (2021), was winner of the Queensland Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, and a finalist in the NSW Premier’s Prize for Australian History. Madrid: A New Biography (2024) was published internationally with Yale University Press and in Spanish with Espasa.
Luke also works regularly as a boxing referee in rural Queensland.
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