Raymond Carr - 9781845195359

Raymond Carr (born 1919) pioneered a new way of looking at modern Spanish history, releasing Spaniards from the shackles of Romantic myth and allowing them to see their nation as a country like any other, rather than one set apart from the rest of Europe. Born in humble circumstances, Carr journeyed through a fascinating period in 20th-century British history, vaulting the class barriers that were still very much in place in the England of his day and turning himself into an interested and acutely observant member of the exclusive and decadent world of the late aristocracy, even becoming a keen huntsman. Familiar with the intricate and secret highways and byways of Oxford, both as an undergraduate at Christ Church and, later, as a Fellow of All Souls and of New College, Carr eventually became Warden of St. Antony's. Throughout his Oxford life, he met and befriended some of the most important, eccentric, and charismatic intellectual figures of the entire 20th century. But, he was also on first-name terms with aristocrats, prime ministers, artists, spies, the foremost U.S. players in the Cold War, and military leaders in Francoist Spain. This biography tells a story that is in some ways stranger than fiction. By tracing the various facets of Raymond Carr's life and personality - as intellectual, traveller, social chameleon, academic mover and shaker, lover of politics, and unrepentant inquirer into anything and everything to do with life and human history - the book builds a masterly picture of the society into which he was born, the politics and culture of an England that is now lost to us, and the work of one of England's major Hispanists.