McGuigan is just like everybody else in his casual “Spain is not real Europe” approach. In a discussion of free and cheap higher ed in Europe he even mentions fucking Schleswig-Holstein, but not Spain.

9 responses to “Africa Begins in the Pyrenees ”

  1. J. Otto Pohl Avatar

    Africa is a better continent than Europe anyways. This is especially true regarding Spain. When Spain was part of Africa under the Moors it was far more advanced than the countries to its north east. When it was part of Europe it had Franco and Civil War.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      It’s absolutely true that Muslim Spain was the high point for the Iberian peninsula. I gave a public lecture on just that subject yesterday.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar

        “Muslim Spain was the high point for the Iberian peninsula”

        Was it though? It’s my understanding that a lot of claims about Muslim Spain aren’t supported by the archeological record (recently confirmed to me by a young specialist in Iberian archeology). How much was PR and how much was genuine?

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        1. Clarissa Avatar

          This is not the purview of archeology.

          Plus, who’d be doing the PR? In Spain, it was downright dangerous to mention it and since then nobody has cared or had the money. Outside of Spain, nobody but a couple of American medievalists have worked on the subject.

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          1. cliff arroyo Avatar

            “This is not the purview of archeology.”

            Physical remains are the purview of archeology and it’s my understanding that texts describe specific conditions in specific places (the PR, maybe) that cannot be verified archeologically.

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  2. AcademicLurker Avatar
    AcademicLurker

    So Africa begins at the Pyrenees and Asia begins at the East gates of Vienna. Europe is pretty small.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Europe is England, Germany, France, and the rest are just wannabes.

      I hate this approach.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar

        “Europe is England, Germany, France, and the rest are just wannabes.”

        I thought that steretotype was the German, French, Dutch and Italian speaking parts and maybe Denmark.

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      2. vishnujanadasa Avatar

        Do t forget Germans are Huns too.

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