Antonio Feros

Antonio Feros teaches and writes about politics, culture, and ethnic relations in the early modern Spanish Empire, as well as Spanish intellectual and modern history. He has published numerous articles on the history of the reigns of Philip II (1556–1598), Philip III (1598–1621), and Philip IV (1621–1665); the ideas and images of kingship in seventeenth-century Spanish drama and painting; political and court cultures in early modern Europe; and the historiography of the Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas. He is the author of Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III, 1598–1621 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), which was translated into Spanish as El Duque de Lerma: Realeza y Privanza en la España de Felipe III (Marcial Pons, 2002).

His most recent book, Speaking of Spain: The Evolution of Race and Nation in the Hispanic World (Harvard University Press, 2017), analyzes the long-term debates and struggles over race and nation in Spain and the Spanish world, tracing them from the late 15th century to the early 19th century. It has been translated into Spanish as Antes de España. Nación y Raza en el Mundo Hispánico, 1450–1820 (Marcial Pons, 2019). In collaboration with Professors Pedro Cardim (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) and Fernando Bouza (Universidad Complutense), Feros also co-edited The Iberian World, 1450–1820 (Routledge, 2019).

He is currently developing a two-volume history of contemporary Spain. The first volume (1939–1956) examines the period between the end of the Civil War and the 1950s, analyzing the country’s reconstruction, the persecution of political enemies, the harsh internal conditions, and Spain’s position in the international arena after World War II. The second volume (1956–1975) analyzes the Franco regime’s attempts to institutionalize a dictatorship within a democratic Europe and in the context of the Cold War, as well as the growing democratic opposition and the transition toward a fully democratic state.

Professor Feros offers a range of undergraduate and graduate courses that emphasize the complexity of societies, challenging deterministic views of historical evolution. His courses highlight the importance of considering ideological diversity within each society and period, and of analyzing the past from a cross-cultural perspective. Topics include early modern Spanish and European political, cultural, religious, and intellectual history; modern Spain; and the history of early modern European imperialism.