Forging a Civilian Community: 1704-1749 book review by Sam Benady This is the first of a series of three books dealing, in hitherto unprecedented detail, with the history of our city in the eighteenth century. There are many gaps unfilled in our history: Gibraltar in the Muslim period awaits some Arabic-speaking historian who can search the documents of the period, and Spanish Gibraltar before 1704 is only now being brought to life, mainly by Spanish researchers into primary sources which are still to be found in Spanish archives. But, closer to home, for most of us, the century following the...