Empire Phobia and Black Legend

The view of María Elvira Roca Barea

Our Blanco White Series, which runs between the shores of Spain and the United Kingdom, could not pass without stopping at María Elvira Roca Barea, the author of Imperiofobia y leyenda negra (Siruela, 2016), a book that analyzes the relationships between the ideas of empire and black legend and accumulates already 15 editions. The author, after dealing with the empire phobia in the cases of Rome, the United States and Russia, focuses on the Spanish Empire  to unveil the origin of several stereotypes in Spain's history that are generally accepted.

María Elvira Roca Barea is a philologist and professor of Spanish Language and Literature in secondary education. He has worked for the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and has taught at Harvard University.