Introduction: cultural trauma in Spain; Part I. Setting the Scene: 1. War memories since 1936: political, moral, social; 2. Democracy, civil war, and intimate violence in the 1930s; Part II. Memories of War during the Franco Years: 3. Repression and remembrance: the victors' liturgy of memory; 4. Repression and reproduction: social memory in the 1940s; 5. Memory and politics: from Civil War to Cold War; 6. Memory and migration: flight from the countryside during the 1950s; 7. Commemorating Franco's peace: the 25th anniversary of the victory; 8. Contesting Franco's peace: transformation from below in the 1960s; 9. Transition and reconciliation: politics and the Church in the 1970s; Part III. Memories of War after Franco: 10. Transition and consent: the presence of the past, 1975–80; 11. 'The level of our times': memory and modernisation, 1981–96; 12. Collective identity and the ethics of memory, 1996–2007; Conclusion: the history of war memories in Spain; Sources and bibliography.
A fascinating study of how the memory of Spain's bloody civil war has been contested from 1939 to the present.
Michael Richards is Associate Professor of European History at the University of the West of England. His previous publications include A Time of Silence: Civil War and the Culture of Repression in Franco's Spain, 1936–1945 (Cambridge, 1998) and The Splintering of Spain: Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War (as co-editor, Cambridge, 2005).
'Almost forty years after Franco's death, the history of the
Spanish Civil War and dictatorship in Spain remains a cultural and
political battleground. Michael Richards, with the same rigour and
imagination shown in his previous research, explores in this book
the relationship between multiple memory narratives of the Spanish
Civil War. The result is a masterpiece of cultural history and the
study of historical consciousness.' Julián Casanova, University of
Zaragoza
'This highly original and conceptually exciting book makes a major
contribution to the history of twentieth-century Spain.
Meticulously researched and richly nuanced, it shows with clarity
and insight how memories and meanings forged by the civil war
became the prism through which Spaniards 'made sense' of rapid and
shattering historical change from the 1940s onwards - from the
country's experience of extreme economic austerity to industrial
take-off, mass migration, rural depopulation and dizzying
urbanization, all the way through to the democratic transition
itself. Dr Richards offers us a trailblazing book which opens up
the social and psychological universe made by Francoism.' Helen
Graham, Royal Holloway, University of London
'Michael Richards' impressively researched new work establishes him
as a major figure in the field. Illuminating Spain's vertiginous
passage from the horrors of civil war, through the appalling
hardship of the 1940s and 1950s to the rapid economic growth of the
1960s and the dramatic transition from dictatorship to democracy,
Dr Richards goes way beyond the conventional boundaries of social
history. His interpretation of these changes is enriched by a
perception of the continuing effects of the mass trauma of civil
war and dictatorship. In consequence, he has produced an important
and groundbreaking work.' Paul Preston, London School of Economics
and Political Science
'… [a] brilliant study …' Jörg Auberg, satt.org
'… an incisive and erudite study of the interaction between memory
and history … At the same time, the book is a vibrant social
history, with chapters on the fierce repression after the Civil
War, massive migration within Spain during the '50s and the role of
the Church to reconcile the two sides.' William Chislett,
translated from El Imparcial
'This will no doubt be a highly decorated, prize-winning book that
has something to offer all students and scholars of modern
European, and specifically Spanish, history. Summing up:
essential.' Choice
'[Richards'] account of how memories of the Civil War have, over
the last eight decades, shaped and been shaped by social processes
is masterly: anyone wanting to know about the history of Spain
since the 1930s would do well to start with this book.' Jo Labanyi,
Cultural and Social History
'Richards' main strength is his superb capacity to read from
different authors and very diverse sources, from newspapers to
cultural histories, and to assemble them into a coherent narrative.
The result is a book that delves into a broad array of topics and
perspectives, from high culture to oral stories, that illuminate
how the regime imposed its vicious and self-serving memory project
onto an impoverished and traumatized society.' Antonio
Cazorla-Sanchez, Journal of Modern History
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