A wonderfully concise and very readable history of Portugal, perfect for travellers

This brief yet comprehensive history begins with the Stone Age and the Roman era; continues to the Visigoths, the development of Christian Portugal and the expulsion of the Moors; on to Spanish rule from the sixteenth century, and its collapse.

There is a strong focus on Portugal's global impact, particularly during the age of European exploration and expansion, and on how the world transformed Portugal: the first of the Atlantic empires, and still a major empire in the 1820s, retaining territories in Africa until the 1970s and in Asia until as recently as the 1990s.

Black examines the nineteenth-century French invasion, the Peninsular War, Brazilian independence, successive revolutions and the end of the monarchy; he shows how Republican Portugal gave way to the dictatorship of Salazar, which was toppled in turn by the Carnation Revolution of 1974. The book also covers contemporary history, from the leadership of Soares to the recent fiscal crisis.

Throughout, Black considers the character of the country's principal regions, including the Azores, Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands; he describes key national sites, such as the Baroque palaces at Mafra, Pombal and elsewhere; and explores Portuguese food, wine and arts.