Spain's Centuries of Crisis 1300 - 1474

This book is a comprehensive history of Spain from the turn of the fourteenth century to the union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon in 1474. In the early 1300s instabilities threatened to undermine Spain's basic social, economic, political, and cultural structures. This text focuses on the crises of Spain in the late middle ages, ranging from plague and famine to violence and civil war. It considers the early transformations that underpinned the country's later successes and describes resolutions to the country's hardships brought about by the reforms of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, in the late 1470s. The book examines the administrative changes and cultural revival that readied Spain for the opportunities and challenges of the oncoming early modern Age of Discovery.

Teofilo F. Ruiz is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His publications include Crisis and Continuity: Land and Town in Late Medieval Castile (1994) and Spanish Society 1400-1600 (2002) and From Heaven to Earth. The Reordering of Castilian Society, 1150-1350 (2004).