This book is as much about region as about a people, but uniquely in Europe this is a case in which the two cannot be separated one from another.

Preface.

For few other peoples of the world, and surely no other in Europe, can the scholarly study of their origins and earliest history be a matter of such direct and contemporary importance, linked at not many removes to political debate and even terrorism, as is the case with the Basques.

1. An ancient people.