I have recently become interested in the history of the Basque people and the Basque country, on both sides of the Pyrenees. However, my sources on early modern Spain barely mentions the Basques, focusing more on Navarra as a Kingdom.
So I ask now, what are some good reading material on the subject? Is the popular "The Basque History of the World" a good starting point?
Thanks in advance!
Kurlansky can get you started, so long as you take it with a huge grain of salt (which is another of his books). It's an overview, and a pop history overview at that, and is very light on sources and the like. Its pro-Basque bias didn't bother me much, but others find it grating. You could get through it in an afternoon, so i'd borrow rather than buy it.
I don't have a recommendation for an overall work, but the memoir of Jose Antonio Aguirre is an interesting read. It's called Escape Via Berlin and it covers his gutsy path to getting out of Nazi-occupied France by going to the heart of Germany. It also covers his time as President of the Basques, if you're interested in that.
Roger Collins' The Basques is better for a serious student. It seems to be the most respected comprehensive overview of Basque history, however hardly offers treatment of modern developments (I read one of the earlier editions and it did not go beyond the 17th century). Collins is a medievalist so understandably there is somewhat more focus on the middle ages.