The Origins, Ideology, and Organization of Basque Nationalism, 1876–1903 (Hardcover)

by Javier Corcuera Atienza; translated by Albert Bork and Cameron J. Watson.
(Occasional Papers Series, no. 12)

Basque nationalism emerged in the aftermath of a bitter civil conflict that had led to the abolition of Basque regional or foral rights in 1876, and specifically in the rapidly industrializing Bilbao of the early 1890s. In this seminal work, first published in Spanish in 1979 and revised for a second edition in 2001, Javier Corcuera charts the emergence and rise of nationalism within the context of a society experiencing tremendous economic, social and political transformation. He focuses on the figure of Sabino Arana, the founder of Basque nationalism, arguing that he evolved from a traditionalist-inspired and quasi religious messianic vision of outright independence to a position of accommodation of Basque difference within Spain. This so-called Hispanicist evolution was, in Corcuera’s opinion, the result of contact with another current, emanating from Bilbao’s modern, industrial bourgeoisie, that emphasized a more pragmatic vision of Basque nationalism based on securing as much regional power as possible while remaining within the Spanish state. Here, then, lay the origins of the internal tensions that would come to define the subsequent development of the PNV or Basque Nationalist Party.

524 pp., index; hardcover (ISBN 978-1-877802-77-5) $39.95.