An American Diplomat in Franco Spain - Softcover

Michael Aaron Rockland

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1601823045 ISBN 13: 9781601823045

Publisher: Hansen Publishing Group, 2012

Synopsis

An American Diplomat in Franco Spain is filled with Michael Aaron Rockland's experiences as a cultural attache at the United States embassy in Madrid, Spain in the 1960s. He captures episodes of historical and cultural significance as he goes about doing his country's business. Some of his stories are quite poignant while others are quite amusing. He shares with his readers how he avoided shaking Francisco Franco's hand, how he spent a day with Martin Luther King in Madrid, how his son was selected to be in the movie Dr. Zhivago, how he came to know several Kennedys, including Senator Edward Kennedy, Pat Lawford Kennedy, and Jackie Kennedy, and how the U.S. accidentally dropped four unarmed hydrogen bombs on Spain. Throughout these stories, Rockland explains Spanish culture, past and present, with his experiences involving bull fighting, being a Jew in a very Catholic Spain, his love affair with Spanish food, and what is lost in translation.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Aaron Rockland is professor of American studies at Rutgers University. His early career, in the United States Diplomatic Service, inspired this memoir. It is his thirteenth book and, in a somewhat different form, was first published in Spanish by the Biblioteca Javier Coy of the University of Valencia Press.
In his writing, Rockland moves back and forth between memoir, fiction, journalism, and history. Five of his books have won prizes or received similar recognition, including New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and The Washington Post's Fifty Best Books of the Year. A book he co-wrote, Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike, was chosen by the New Jersey State Library as one of the Ten Best Books Ever Written on New Jersey or by a New Jerseyan. Two other books received the prize of the New Jersey Studies Alliance.
Rockland has also worked in television and filmmaking and is a regular contributor to several magazines, most regularly New Jersey Monthly. He has won five major teaching awards, including the national teaching award in American Studies.

Review:

Michael Rockland's accounts of his unusual experiences while he and I served with the American Embassy in Spain are amusing and illuminating. The most interesting is his tale of the hydrogen bombs that the U.S. inadvertently dropped on Spain and in the waters off its coast. This book will appeal to American as to Spanish audiences. --Ambassador Alexander F. Watson, former Assistant Secretary of State

What pleasure it gives me to encounter an American, a former diplomat, who understands so well our country, past and present, and who is equally at home in the world and language of Cervantes as that of Shakespeare. --Jorge Dezcallar, Ambassador of Spain to the United States

Brilliantly funny and magnificently unputdownable for Spaniards and Americans who lived through the last death rattles of Franco's regime. This book is a unique performance and an admirable tribute of love from an American to our country as well as a book that, in comparing and contrasting both countries, uniquely illuminates both Spanish and American culture. --Carmen Manuel, Professor of American Literature, and Director of the Javier Coy Press, University of Valencia

What pleasure it gives me to encounter an American, a former diplomat, who understands so well our country, past and present, and who is equally at home in the world and language of Cervantes as that of Shakespeare. --Jorge Dezcallar, Ambassador of Spain to the United States

Brilliantly funny and magnificently unputdownable for Spaniards and Americans who lived through the last death rattles of Franco's regime. This book is a unique performance and an admirable tribute of love from an American to our country as well as a book that, in comparing and contrasting both countries, uniquely illuminates both Spanish and American culture. --Carmen Manuel, Professor of American Literature, and Director of the Javier Coy Press, University of Valencia

What pleasure it gives me to encounter an American, a former diplomat, who understands so well our country, past and present, and who is equally at home in the world and language of Cervantes as that of Shakespeare. --Jorge Dezcallar, Ambassador of Spain to the United States

Brilliantly funny and magnificently unputdownable for Spaniards and Americans who lived through the last death rattles of Franco's regime. This book is a unique performance and an admirable tribute of love from an American to our country as well as a book that, in comparing and contrasting both countries, uniquely illuminates both Spanish and American culture. --Carmen Manuel, Professor of American Literature, and Director of the Javier Coy Press, University of Valencia

It is impossible to put down as he tells of the years that were the death-rattle of the Franco regime told in a very entertaining style. --Alan Caruba, Bookviews, October 2012

Brilliantly funny and magnificently unputdownable for Spaniards and Americans who lived through the last death rattles of Franco's regime. This book is a unique performance and an admirable tribute of love from an American to our country as well as a book that, in comparing and contrasting both countries, uniquely illuminates both Spanish and American culture. --Carmen Manuel, Professor of American Literature, and Director of the Javier Coy Press, University of Valencia

An American Diplomat in Franco Spain is really part history and cultural commentary but with the personal touch of a memoir and Rockland does a wonderful job of blending these three genres together.
Written in a simple but engaging first person voice that invites the reader to follow along, Rockland tells some incredible stories along the way...but Rockland's love of Spain shines through it all... --James Kane, 1 Man and his Books

Brilliantly funny and magnificently unputdownable for Spaniards and Americans who lived through the last death rattles of Franco's regime. This book is a unique performance and an admirable tribute of love from an American to our country as well as a book that, in comparing and contrasting both countries, uniquely illuminates both Spanish and American culture. --Carmen Manuel, Professor of American Literature, and Director of the Javier Coy Press, University of Valencia

About this edition

• Publisher: Hansen Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1601823045
• ISBN 13: 9781601823045
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 178