Stanley Payne’s scholarly survey of Spanish history is outstanding and very-well written. However, Kevin Pierce should never have been assigned to narrate the audio version. It’s clear he has no familiarity with Spanish, and he made no attempt to learn how to pronounce words and names in the language. He pronounced the occasional French words so badly they’re virtually unrecognizable. If Prof. Payne has ever listened to this recording, he must have been appalled. As a listener, I was only irritated and annoyed every few sentences. Pierce’s reading was in other ways stilted and mechanical, as if he had no idea what even the English words he was reading meant. I managed to get through the entire recorded book, but I only did so because of the quality of the original scholarship. For these major flaws in this recorded production, I do not blame Pierce (although it strikes me as odd a narrator wouldn’t take professional pains to read properly) . I blame the recording’s producer. Payne’s book is a great read. This production is a virtual failure.