The 20th century was a crucial period in Portuguese history, due to the speedy changes and variety of political regimes it underwent, each aiming at the establishment of one given social, cultural and institutional framework. Fluctuating between a tiny continental strip, its African empire and European destiny, between monarchy, republic, dictatorship and democracy, between elite and masses, between the literate and the illiterate, between urban modernism and rural conservatism, between those who wanted to reshape the country?s future and those who sought to find refuge in the certainties of the past, the Portuguese 20th century was a long, sometimes conflicting and still ongoing debate on the themes of decadence, backwardness and regeneration, either through revolution, reform or a simple return to lost national virtues. The purpose of this book is to cast light on those events, providing an overview of the reality, challenges, achievements, hopes and failures that formed the general historical path of Portugal over the last one hundred years.
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