Basques: of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre: Their History and Their Traditions, The (Hardcover)

Hardcover Philippe Veyrin wrote Les Basques de Labourd, de Soule et de Basse Navarre: leur histoire et leurs traditions during an extraordinarily tumultuous period in French Basque history. He started the manuscript in 1941, one year into the German occupation of the Basque coast when Vichy propaganda about regionalism gave some Basques hope for a new ethnic status and a restoration of ancient rights. The director of the Basque Museum (Musée Basque) in Baiona urged Veyrin to "write a new book about the Basques . . . and to make a portrait of the Basques available to all those who are curious to know more about or who love the most interesting, albeit smallest, pays in France, known throughout the world for its language, traditions, and virtues," a region that "arouses intellectual interest and commands respect." As the leading institutional base for Basque ethnic identity in 1942, the Musée Basque was ideally placed to publish the first four hundred copies of Les Basques. The museum br