Franco's Spain

A sibling of interwar Europe's other fascist regimes, Franco's Spain survived them all, growing to a feeble old age in an era of liberal democracy. This book looks beyond the mythology surrounding the origins of Franco's dictatorship to provide a critical overview of the regime as a whole. All phases of this history are covered: the dictatorship's emergence out of a bloody uprising against a democratic government; the "high period" of Francoism with all its poverty, hunger, and fear, as followed by a complex time of change and economic growth; and the final demise of Franco's reign amid open opposition and internal defections. Indeed, economic and social issue are as much a part this story as politics, and international relations find their place in Franco's Spain alongside purely domestic issues. The study also peers beyond the grave in its examination of the transition to democracy after Franco's death in 1975.