Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees Paperback - 1991

First line

Between August and November 1659, on an island in the Bidassoa River near Bayonne, the first ministers of France and Spain, Cardinal Mazarin and Don Luis de Haro, negotiated and signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees.

From the rear cover

"A brilliant, long-range sociological study . . . This fascinating exploration through three centuries of the frontier is rounded off with a perceptive and balanced appraisal of the nature of national identity within the context of the Pyrenees . . . . This is a study which is exciting, learned and thought-provoking, a splendid example of interdisciplinary history at its best." --Henry Kamen, Times Literary Supplement "Peter Sahlins gives us a magnificent lesson in interdisciplinary scholarship on a very basic theme: how the identity of individuals, their families, and their villages on both sides of the boundary has been shaped by their belonging to two different states--states whose development, moreover, has proceeded very differently. I had always hoped for a study of the 'boundary phenomenon, ' and Peter Sahlins' work has answered my wish." --Pierre Vilar, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales "I can see this book finding a privileged place on the shelves of European historians. Beyond this it will certainly be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, and other concerned with the problems of ethnicity; and it should excite the interest of political scientists as well." --Eric R. Wolf, City University of New York