I attempted to ask a book sub reddit for suggestions on the Spanish History and Spain's political history but received mostly fiction books. So I have come to the experts. Can anyone suggest something to point me in the right direction to get started? Thanks in advance.
Richard Herr's The Eighteenth Century Revolution in Spain.
A personal favorite is Irene Silverblatt's Modern Inquisitions. It's a great look at the formation of a unified Spanish identity and modern state in the as a result of colonialism in Peru and the Inquisition.
Like any other old country Spain has many periods so it would help if you are interested in a particular period. For instance if you can find in English "Episodios Nacionales" (National Episodes) by Miguel Delibes, if you can read Spanish then they are easy to find. Paul Preston (The Spanish Holocaust), Ian Gibson and Jose M Sanchez makes some great points in his book The Spanish Civil War as a Religious Tragedy. And many more, if you want a specific period I can give you some more titles or just start from the beginning.
Henry Kamen is a good reference, specially for the Imperial period, but has some more Works. Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763
I found this one useful.
http://www.amazon.es/%C3%89pocas-medievales-Historia-Espa%C3%B1a-Vol/dp/8484329380/ref=sr_1_44?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402907436&sr=1-44&keywords=espa%C3%B1a this one on the Spanish era in Protestant Europe: http://www.amazon.es/ej%C3%A9rcito-Flandes-Espa%C3%B1ol-1567-1659-Singulares/dp/8420629332/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402907571&sr=1-1&keywords=parker+el+camino+flandes Hispania or Iberian Peninsula under Rome: http://www.amazon.com/Spain-Empire-Edmund-Spenser-Bouchier-ebook/dp/B00BJLLTI6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402907720&sr=1-1&keywords=rome+spain A summary of Spanish history: http://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Spain-Cambridge-Histories/dp/0521607213/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402907644&sr=1-2&keywords=rome+spain
Jews and Muslims in Spain:
One remark on the books on Muslim domination of the Iberian Peninsula, I could not find a work that actually did not get into the cliché of “wonderful day to day sharing of muslims, jews and Christian in legendary Al-Andalus land” this is just a cliché, muslims should protect both jews and Christians as they are people of the book, but they are severely limited and taxed. Unfortunately centuries of wars and a horrible XX century (and so far XXI) just threw everything into the bin. SO true that Muslin Iberian Peninsula flourished culturally but take it with a pinch of salt.
So all these works would have taken you to the Spanish XIX century, after the Napoleonic invasion and to the century considered by many as the most complex in Spanish history. Next is early XX century and all events that led to the Civil War, you have some titles in the subreddit already. Hope you can enjoy it, I have some additional stuff specially around the Civil War in pdf format (happy to send it to you if you drop me a private message with an email address). Some other classics on the Spanish Exploration and Conquest of the American continent can be found in the open domain at Livribox.org by the explorers themselves like Cabeza de Vaca etc.