This book is a new short history of Spain during a crucial period, the reign of Alfonso XIII (1902-1931). Traditionally, this has been seen as a time that epitomized the worst features of 'old Spain': a backward country, poor and chronically unequal, with a government dominated by a tiny oligarchy ruling over a corrupt system an anomaly in Western Europe. However, this study, in line with the most recent historiography, offers a new insight into the period as one that was actually characterized by extensive modernization in Spanish society and politics. Spain experienced, albeit in an unbalanced way, many of the changes already in progress in other European countries, such as urbanization, industrialization, mass migration, the rise in literacy, secularization, and the emergence of mass politics. It then suffered profound conflicts associated with these changes, and a political dynamic of reform and reaction, revolution and counter-revolution. The book is divided into four main sections, dealing, ch