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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
50, 1994
For the Bookshelf
By William A. Douglass
There are three noteworthy publications in the Basque
Book Series, each in its own way a true benchmark. Hills
of Conflict. Basque Nationalism in France by James E.
Jacob of Wright State University is nothing less than the
definitive work on its subject in any language. Professor
Jacob traces in minute detail the evolution and fortunes of
Basque nationalism in France from the time of the French
Revolution down to the present. Hills of Conflict provides a
wealth of little-known, and at times startling, facts about
a movement that remains largely in the shadow of the
better-publicized Basque nationalist challenge to the
Spanish state.
The Basque Language. A Practical Introduction
by Alan R. King is easily the most extensive and thorough
Basque grammar available for English speakers. Alan King
draws heavily upon his personal experiences in learning
Basque, his classroom years teaching the language to English
speakers and his formal training in linguistics. The work
contains forty learning units, each of which incorporates
dialogues or narrative texts providing glimpses of life in
the Basque Country, notes on grammar, exercises emphasizing
both grammatical and communication skills, a vocabulary list
and keys to exercises. There is also an elementary reader
with simple texts containing fascinating selections about
the Basque Country’s geography, language, folk tales
and literature. The book lends itself to
self-teaching.
Finally, we are most pleased to announce publication
of The Governor’s Mansion, third in a Basque
trilogy by Robert Laxalt. In Child of the Holy Ghost
we meet the elements of an eventual Basque-American family
in their Old World setting. In The Basque Hotel the
family is fully formed, the father absent with his sheep
band and the mother running a boarding house in Carson City
while raising her young family. Through the
protagonist’s eyes, the young boy Pete, we experience
an adolescent crisis, but with Basque-American ethnic
overtones. Pete’s struggle becomes a kind of metaphor
for that of all Basque immigrants (and their descendants)
craving acceptance in a new land.
In The Governor’s Mansion brother Leon
embarks upon a bittersweet political career that at times
soars with heady success while at others plummets in bitter
disappointment. In writing this work Robert Laxalt draws
upon his many years as confidante and member of his brother
Paul’s (Nevada’s former governor and U.S. senator)
election campaign teams. An advance copy of The
Governor’s Mansion has already commanded lavish
critical praise from Publishers
Weekly.
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