Europa: el surgimiento de una nación by Carl J. Friedrich
In a previous post, we saw how Daniel Gil let News Gothic gradually morph into Franklin Gothic, as a typographic metaphor for Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Around the same time, he used a similar idea to illustrate “Europe: the rise of a nation” with letterforms only. At the bottom, Europe starts as an undefined blobby mass. Gradually taking shape, it eventually emerges as a clearly contoured word (and concept). Again, Gil relied on the compact and straightforward capitals of Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed.
Carl Joachim Friedrich (1901–1984) was a German-American professor and political theorist. In the 1950s, he became the head of the European studies division at Harvard University. Friedrich also participated in a project to draft a constitution for the establishment of a European Political Community.
The Rise of Modern Europe. A Survey of European History in its Political, Economic, and Cultural Aspects From the End of the Middle Ages to the Present was first published by Harper & Brothers in 1952. Alianza Editorial’s paperback edition with a Spanish translation by Rafael Mazarrasa Martín-Artajo came out in 1973 – the same year the United Kingdom joined the European Communities (EC, the precursor of the EU), as the text on the back points out.
