No other historian has enjoyed as much influence in Spain and Latin America over more than four decades as Josep Fontana. Undoubtedly, he has been one of the great contemporary European historians.

Born on 20 November 1931, he studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Barcelona, where he graduated in History in 1956 and defended his degree thesis, directed by Jaume Vicens i Vives. At the same time, between 1951 and 1954, he studied Catalan philology, literature and history at the Catalan University Studies, clandestine courses taught by professors Ferran Soldevila and Jordi Rubió i Balaguer.

During the academic year 1956-1957, he was an assistant lecturer at the School of Hispanic Studies at the University of Liverpool, where he befriended the historian John Lynch. Between 1957 and 1966 he worked as an assistant to Jaume Vicens Vives (who died in 1960) and Jordi Nadal at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Barcelona. This task was interrupted because in 1966, the year of the Caputxinada, he was repressed for his democratic militancy along with other colleagues. Then, with some of them, he worked directing the history section of the Spanish version of the Larousse Encyclopaedia

In 1968 he returned to teaching at the new Autonomous University of Barcelona as Temporary Associate Professor. After two years, he obtained his doctorate under the supervision of Fabià Estapé with the thesis that gave rise to the book La quiebra de la monarquía absoluta, published in 1971, which had an extraordinary impact on Spanish historiography due to its innovative character, combining economic and political history. In 1974 he obtained the position of Full Professor of Economic History at the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the University of València; these were the years of the political and cultural awakening at the end of Franco’s regime, and in the city of Túria, he found an ambience of intellectual restlessness and cultural effervescence. He met with Ernest Lluch at the active Faculty of Economics and was also in contact with Joan Fuster and Vicent Ventura. After two years he returned to the UAB, where he stayed until 1990. The academic year 1990-1991 marked the beginning of his fruitful period at Pompeu Fabra University, where he created the Institut Universitari d'Història Jaume Vicens Vives and was one of the founders of the Humanities degree.

Fontana followed in the footsteps of teachers Ferran Soldevilla, Jaume Vicens Vives, and Pierre Vilar (and, more sporadically, Ramon Carande), a legacy he always recalled. As Jordi Nadal (author of El fracaso de la revolución industrial en España, the other groundbreaking work in Spanish historiography alongside La quiebra de la monarquía absoluta) has written, Fontana's work is "extremely ambitious, exceptionally interwoven, and remarkably committed," characterized by "the desire to be useful, to involve mortals in the march of the world." This commitment permeates all of Fontana's work to the extent that it becomes one of his distinguishing features.

The historian has left an extensive body of work, atypical in the academic world, which does not fit into specific chronologies or topics, always crafted with great rigour. Setting aside a multitude of prefaces, conference presentations, lectures, and articles, it is worth noting, first and foremost, the set of works related to the crisis of the Ancient Regime, or as he preferred to say, the construction of the new liberal regime, which constituted the core of his research: La quiebra de la monarquía absoluta (1971), Hacienda y Estado en la crisis del final del Antiguo Régimen español, 1822-1833 (1973), La revolución liberal. Política y Hacienda, 1833-1845 (1977), the fifth volume of the Història de Catalunya, directed by Pierre Vilar, La fi de l'Antic Règim i la industrialització, 1787-1868 (1988), La revolució liberal a Catalunya (2003), De en medio del tiempo. La segunda restauración española, 1823-1834 (2006), La época del liberalismo, volume 6 of the Historia de España coordinated with R. Villares (2007), and the posthumous work Capitalisme i democràcia, 1756-1848. Com va començar aquest engany (2019).

Another thematic focus is the reflection on historical science, historiography, and its social use, which he initiated with La historia (1974), a popular book that had a significant impact and continued with Historia. Análisis del pasado y proyecto social (1982), La història després de la fi de la Història (1992), Introducció a l'estudi de la història (1997), and La història dels homes (2000).

The third block is that of world history from 1945 onwards: Por el bien del imperio (2011), El futuro es un país extraño (2013), El siglo de la revolución (2017), and La crisi com a triomf del capitalisme (2018). According to Gonzalo Pontón's opinion, "the eighteen hundred pages of text that the first three books add up to constitute, plainly and simply, the best history of the 20th century ever published worldwide."

The fourth block is dedicated to the analysis of collective identities, which has had a significant impact: Europa ante el espejo (1994) and La formació d'una identitat. Una història de Catalunya (2014). It is worth noting that the first has been translated into 11 languages, including Chinese, and the second is currently being translated into Japanese.

His impact on historiography is attested by the work Història i projecte social. Reconeixement a una trajectòria (2004), in three volumes, published in homage to Fontana on the occasion of his retirement, in which 129 historians collaborated. Also, the institutional recognitions he deserved: the VII Premi Fundació Catalana de la Recerca (1997), the Gold Medal for Cultural Merit from the Barcelona City Council (2002), the Narcís Monturiol Award (2003), the Creu de Sant Jordi (2006), the National Culture Award (2007), and the Gold Medal Ciutat de Barcelona (2018). In addition, several Honoris Causa doctorates: from the Universidad Nacional del Comahue (2002), Universitat Rovira Virgili (2010), Universidad de Valladolid (2011), Universitat de Girona (2013), and Universitat de València (2016). After his passing, UPF organized, on November 19, 2018, an event in tribute by "colleagues, disciples, and friends of the master," in which, in addition to the rector Jaume Casals, 35 historians from various Catalan and Spanish universities and different disciplines spoke.

The intellectual profile of Josep Fontana would be incomplete without mentioning his significant editorial work. As the son of a second-hand book dealer, he became an expert bibliographer and bibliophile. He played a prominent role at the Ariel publishing house in the late 1960s, which was decisive in the renewal of historiography in Spain. In 1976, Crítica publishing house was born, making the best works on history, thought, literature, and science from the Western world accessible to the public. Crítica introduced the works of great historians such as Pierre Vilar, E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, Michel Vovelle, Christopher Hill, Maxine Berg, David S. Landes, Jan de Vries, or P. Kriedte, among others, in addition to the most important works of Spanish historiography. Fontana served as the director of collections until the last moment of his life, alongside Gonzalo Pontón and, in the last years, with Carme Esteban.

The profile would still be incomplete without mentioning the historian's civic commitment. He was primarily concerned with providing a reasoned history of the issues faced by women and men. Additionally, he aimed to offer a critical perspective on contemporary society, always to build a better and more just world.

(Extracted from J. Albareda, "Josep Fontana, la història per explicar els problemes dels homes i les dones," L'Avenç, 470, pp. 34-45)