Winner of the 2013 Gyorgy Ranki Biennial Prize, Economic History Association "An economic historian of early modern Spain and its empire, Grafe examines Spain from 1650 to 1800 through a multidisciplinary lens to explore the limited extent to which it was emerging as a nation-state with integrated domestic markets... Distant Tyranny is a revisionist work that will become mandatory reading ... Read morefor historians of early modern Spain... [A] stimulating, thoughtful book."
Choice "There is little to quibble with in Grafe's work. The early chapters build a solid foundation, based on detailed archival research and a meticulous tracing of market behavior... [O]ne cannot help but admire the combination of a detailed, erudite analysis with a coherent macro-historical logic... In a rare feat for an economic history book, Distant Tyranny may yet shed as much light on current events as it does on the past."
Mauricio Drelichman, EH.net "Grafe's book, with its comparative approach and thorough documentation on Spain's economic and political fluctuations between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries constitutes a major contribution to this reinterpretation of early modern Europe and Spain's role in its economic history."
Jesus Cruz, Human Figurations "[A] spirited and engaging study built around a strong, step-by-step argument... Distant Tyranny offers a consistently intelligent and probing exercise in both economic and political history."
James S. Amelang, Sixteenth Century Journal "Grafe's excellent book joins the growing stack of studies that aim to strike down, once and for all, the tyranny of the shoddy teleology of Spanish historical development that miraculously has survived centuries of contrary evidence."
Ruth Mackay, American Historical Review "Grafe's Distant Tyranny constitutes a provocative and fruitful historical exercise that provides a convincing narrative regarding the sources and historical consequences of market integration in Spain. The author offers a study that will appeal to a myriad of scholars, ranging from ones interested in general debates about how economics and politics interact to ones more specifically focused on Spanish history. In either case, the book puts forward new and exciting ideas to be further explored and debated. If historiography is supposed to be a reflective and anti-conformist practice, these pages serve as an excellent example."
Alejandro Garcia Monton, European Review of History Show Less