An intimate portrait of a fascinating country and its people. Portugal is an established member of the European Union, one of the founders of the euro currency and a founding member of NATO. Yet it is an inconspicuous and largely overlooked country on the continents south-west rim. Barry Hatton shines a light on this enigmatic corner of Europe by blending historical analysis with entertaining personal anecdotes. He describes the idiosyncrasies that make the Portuguese unique and surveys the eventful path that brought them ...
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An intimate portrait of a fascinating country and its people. Portugal is an established member of the European Union, one of the founders of the euro currency and a founding member of NATO. Yet it is an inconspicuous and largely overlooked country on the continents south-west rim. Barry Hatton shines a light on this enigmatic corner of Europe by blending historical analysis with entertaining personal anecdotes. He describes the idiosyncrasies that make the Portuguese unique and surveys the eventful path that brought them to where they are today. In the fifteenthand sixteenthcentury Age of Discovery the Portuguese led Europe out of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic and they brought Asia and Europe together. Evidence of their one-time four-continent empire can still be felt, not least in the Portuguese language which is spoken by more than 220 million people from Brazil, across parts of Africa to Asia. Analyzing present-day society and culture, The Portuguese also considers the nations often tumultuous past. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake was one of Europes greatest natural disasters, strongly influencing continental thought and heralding Portugals extended decline. The Portuguese also weathered Europes longest dictatorship under twentieth-century ruler Antnio Salazar. A 1974 military coup, called the Carnation Revolution, placed the Portuguese at the center of Cold War attentions. Portugals quirky relationship with Spain, and with its oldest ally England, is also scrutinized. Portugal, which claims Europes oldest fixed borders, measures just 561 by 218 kilometers. Within that space, however, it offers a patchwork of widely differing and beautiful landscapes. With an easygoing and seductive lifestyle expressed most fully in their love of food, the Portuguese also have an anarchical streak evident in many
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Re Hatton's book: Sounds great, but is fraught with weaknesses. Start with the location for NATO's Mediterranean and South Atlantic Command. An author who fails to include this obscured fact, which is hardly a secret, has no idea what the 1974 was all about. Find some details in Wikipedia under Reference below.
One might wonder just what the NATO intelligence operations for this strategic part of the globe were doing as the 1974 Coup was being planned, recalling that Holden Roberto and Edward Mondlane were both backed certain elements in the US when the African war was launched in 1961. Then there was the prerequisite to the African War of the take over of Goa in India, which removed a source of acclimatized man power for Portugal's anti-guerrilla/anti-terrorist forces. Portugal, a founding member of NATO, received no help from its "allies" in either case. It seems as though the opposite occurred.
The implications of the these facts do not need to be discussed here; but what needs to be pointed out is that the author fails to discuss anything about the NATO Command Center for the Mediterranean and the South Atlantic being based in Oeiras/Lisbon. Strange oversight from which one can make his/her own extrapolations concerning the depth and quality of the political insights offered:
REFERENCE:
Allied Joint Force Command Lisbon
Active 1967-1982 COMIBERLANT
1982-1999 CINCIBERLANT
1999-2004 CINCSOUTHLANT
2004-2012 Joint Command Lisbon
Allegiance NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Part of Allied Command Operations, HQ Casteau, Belgium
From 1972, for many years during the Cold War, Oeiras was home to Commander Iberian Atlantic. Commanders during this period included Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckley and Robert Erly of the U.S. Navy.
As for Alibris: I had to buy this book from another source because Alibris UK has the bizzare policy of shipping their books first to the USA before they are shipped overseas. May be Great Britain is now a colony of the US Dept of Home Land Security. If this is not a good guess as to this weird practice, please develop your own. Alibris Customers need an explanation as to why Alibris are first shipping texts to the USA, of all places, for international distribution. In the US Costs are high, while the labor force attention span is minimal. The process puts another 4 weeks on delivery time, which makes timely delivery through Alibris meaningless. Often the books just don't arrive. Explanations are warranted.
