{"id":12803,"date":"2026-01-17T14:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/?p=12803"},"modified":"2026-10-16T19:37:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T18:37:40","slug":"no-country-for-travellers-british-visitors-to-spain-and-portugal-1760-1820-by-roey-sweet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2026\/01\/17\/no-country-for-travellers-british-visitors-to-spain-and-portugal-1760-1820-by-roey-sweet\/","title":{"rendered":"No Country for Travellers?\u00a0 British Visitors to Spain and Portugal, 1760-1820 by Roey Sweet and Richard Ansell."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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No Country for Travellers?<\/em> explores the rise and nature of British travel to Spain and Portugal between 1760 and 1820, across a region that is conventionally overlooked in studies of British travel to Europe. Drawing on extensive archival and printed sources left by travellers in the period, Rosemary Sweet and Richard Ansell reveal the unheralded significance of the two countries to eighteenth-century British culture, and their attraction as destinations long before the Peninsular War and nineteenth-century romanticism. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Along the way, the book\u2019s compelling narrative reveals the realities of Iberian travel, the different itineraries that travellers followed, the place of Spanish and Portuguese cities in the British imagination, and the importance of mediators in cultural exchange, on the Iberian side as well as the British.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The travellers\u2019 memoirs reflect changing perceptions of Spain and Portugal as modernisation raised new hopes that vied with pessimism and ancient prejudice, and also the persistence of cultural stereotypes, while the counterintuitive relationship between civilian travel and armed conflict emerges through a case study of the Peninsular War. Finally, focusing on contemporary fascination with the Alhambra in Granada, the authors examine the rise of British interest in Iberia\u2019s Islamic history, with its significance for contemporary understandings of \u2018Europe\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Roey Sweet is Professor of Urban History at the University of Leicester, co-editor of Urban History<\/em> and Academic Director Bibliography of British and Irish History<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Ansell is a postdoctoral researcher at Birkbeck, University of London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download a FREE copy here.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nNo Country for Travellers? explores the rise and nature of British travel to Spain and Portugal between 1760 and 1820, across…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “No Country for Travellers?\u00a0 British Visitors to Spain and Portugal, 1760-1820 by Roey Sweet and Richard Ansell.”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[954,947],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-information","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11647,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2025\/10\/16\/the-nicola-verdon-memorial-fund\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":0},"title":"The Nicola Verdon Memorial Fund.","author":"John Parker","date":"16 October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Nicola Verdon Memorial Fund has been launched. 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The British Association for Local History is the national charity which promotes local history and serves local historians,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Information"","block_context":{"text":"Information","link":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/category\/information\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/BALH_banner.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15116,"url":"https:\/\/www.englishlocalhistory.org\/wp\/2026\/10\/13\/the-testimony-of-the-victorian-poor-c1834-1900\/","url_meta":{"origin":12803,"position":5},"title":"The Testimony of the Victorian Poor, c1834 – 1900.","author":"John Parker","date":"13 October 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Would you like to be involved in a research project into the Victorian poor? 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