Historians who see their work as constructive of the national identity tend to appropriate the Marranos (or, Conversos) exclusively to their own nation and culture. Yovel's book argues it is impossible to attribute any integral and univocal identity to the Marranos, neither Jewish nor Hispano-Catholic, since it was, precisely, the disintegration of the compact characteristic of medieval society which is the most distinctive and interesting feature of these people, and one of the main contributions they made to early-modern Europe.