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In our modern world, leisuretime activities are extremely common and very plentiful, but this was not always the case. Shubert's well-researched history of bullfights throughout the centuries reveals the Don King^-like promotion of the bullring even during the eighteenth century; the star treatment given to the matadors, earlier versions of today's high-priced athletes; and the selling of other products (concessions) that went along with promoting the bullfight. Shubert explores the history of the sport as we know it today. Star matadors are featured, most notably twentieth-century legend Manuel Rodriguez Manolete, and an entire chapter is devoted to female bullfighters. Spanish history cannot help but be tied up with bullfighting, especially in terms of economic and social aspects of Spanish culture. For those interested in bullfighting, Shubert's work is incredibly thorough, and his prose, though occasionally dry, is glib enough to keep even the most casual observer engrossed. Joe Collins

Review

"An original and persuasive interpretation of an institution that has been intimately identified with Spanish society by Spaniards and foreigners alike for more than two centuries. Drawing on archival evidence, travelers' accounts, trade journals, and legislative and political sources, as well as from the massive secondary literature, Adrian Shubert argues that, as an early and highly successful example of a commercialized leisure activity, the bullfight was `one of the most modern things in Spain' in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is an engaging work of social history that will be of interest to general readers as well as specialists in the field."--Carolyn Boyd, Chair and Professor of History, University of Texas, Austin

"An impressive achievement of tone and scholarship over the usual bombast, this book is recommended for Spanish culture or large sports collections."--Library Journal

"A remarkable and wholly successful book. Offering a new interpretation of this most Spanish of Spanish pastimes, Shubert liberates the corrida from the machismo attributed by Hemingway and other foreign writers. In a word, capitalism is in, romanticism out, as Shubert, examining the business-side of the corrida, rightly sees bullfighting as a pioneer institution in the commercialization of leisure and sport. In doing so, moreover, Shubert alters the traditional view of Spain as a country out of step with modernity itself. Lucidly written, this book--like the bullfight itself--deserves a wide audience."--Richard Kagan, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University

"Shubert's study is a delight. This is clearly the best one-volume social history of the classic bullfight available in any language."--Stanley Payne, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison

"Adrian Shubert's book on bullfighting is a major contribution to the social history of modern Spain but it is also much more--a scholarly, witty and endlessly fascinating book which helps us understand many of the enigmas of the recent Spanish past." --Paul Preston, Principe de Asturias Chair of Contemporary Spanish History and Director of the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, London School of Economics. Author of Franco: A Biography, The Triumph of Democracy in Spain and The Coming of the Spanish Civil War