Josep Maria Salrach Marès (1945) is a Doctor of Medieval History from the University of Barcelona, where he tought until 1993. Since then he has lectured at the Humanities Faculty of the Univesidad Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). He has also taught courses at the VII university of Paris. He has edited the Salvat Català Encyclopaedic Dictionary, and the books Història de Catalunya (6 v.) and Salvat’s Història Universal (10 v.). He is the author of works of historical synthesis on Catalonia. He has been working for several years on a comparative history of the subsistence crisis.