About this book:

Discover the extraordinary story of the tiny Pyrenean county that became one of the most powerful forces in medieval Europe. **A History of Aragon** takes you on a sweeping journey from the rugged mountain valleys north of the Ebro to the sun-drenched shores of Sicily and Naples — revealing how a modest frontier territory grew into a Mediterranean empire whose merchant fleets dominated the sea, whose armies toppled kings, and whose innovative institutions still shape debates over autonomy and federation today.

Spanning two millennia, this richly narrative book chronicles every era of Aragon's remarkable history: the Christian heroes who carved a kingdom from the chaos of post-Roman Hispania, the legendary warrior-king James I who conquered Valencia and the Balearics, the cunning dynastic marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella that unified Spain, the defiant sieges of Zaragoza against Napoleon's armies, the devastation of the Civil War, and the long, resilient fight for identity and self-governance in the modern age. With vivid storytelling and deep scholarship, it is the definitive account of a region whose influence far exceeded its size — and whose story is essential to understanding Spain itself.