Politics of Revenge

While 20th-century Spain has been dominated by right-wing forces historians have, until now, paid little critical attention to the Spanish Right, concentrating instead on the Civil War and the earlier anarchist revolution. "The Politics of Revenge" seeks to redress this balance in a disturbing account of how the Right seized power through that civil war and then maintained a cruel and corrupt dictatorship. Apart from a brief interval for the Second Republic between 1931 and 1936, the Right prevailed in modern Spain until 1977 when the current democratic regime came to power. On occasions when the Right's domination was challenged by popular democratic forces, the challengers were met with violence. Paul Preston examines the course of the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) and focuses on the army officers and Falangists who fought it and who struggled to reimpose the hegemony of the right. Their success resulted in 40 years of dictatorship under Franco which wreaked revenge on the defeated Left. This book provides an original account of the Spanish Right in its authoritarian, fascist and military forms and presents a highly readable analysis of a ruthless political scene.

Preston, Paul