An illustrated brief history of Portugal written for non-specialist foreign readers. Also included in the book is a historical gazetteer, short biographies, chronological tables and maps.

2008-07-08 The best summary history of a country that I've read

As suggested by another reviewer, this book is a little gem. Set out in chronological order, It provides easily readable coverage of the most important aspects and events of Portugal's history, including limited coverage of the overseas empire.

What makes this stand apart from most 'Noddy's outing to the history of country X' books is the inclusion of 14 or 15 maps together with up to a page or so of explanatory text for each. These are really informative and could actually be read in isolation to get the basic gist of the history of the country since ancient times. There are plenty of photos too. On the down side, some of the legends etc on the maps are hard to read being of a very small font size.

I'd love to see historians of other countries adopt a similar format. Highly recommended.