The How and Why of This Book -- Framing the Study -- The People of Cerbere Speak -- The People of Portbou Speak -- A New Direction -- The State of Culture in Roussillon -- Northern Catalans Speak -- Language and Identity on the Horns of a Dilemma
Summary
Few historians and fewer lay people know that the first feudal constitution to recognize equality between the burghers and nobles was established in 1150 in Catalunya, sixty-five years before the signing of the Magna Carta in England. In the fifteenth century the Corts of Barcelona (a legislative body) established the principle of a 'limited' monarchy obliged to govern according to laws, while guarding a degree of royal power. These facts lie at the foundation of a culture of nonviolent resistance to assimilation that has been used to combat state power in France and Spain ever since
