The fascist side of the regime is addressed in the aforementioned work of Paul Preston and in another two contributions of great interest: Stanley G. Payne, Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999), first published as Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961); and Sheelagh M. Ellwood, Spanish Fascism in the Franco Era (London: Macmillan, 1987). An early but very influential contribution is by Juan José Linz, ‘From Falange to Movimiento-Organización: The Spanish Single Party and the Franco Regime’, in Samuel P. Huntington and C.H. Moore (eds), Authoritarian Politics in Modern Societies (New York: Basic Books, 1970). A recent comprehensive introduction is by Miguel Jerez Mir and Javier Luque, ‘State and Regime in Early Francoism, 1936–1945: Power Structures, Main Actors and Repression Policy’, in António Costa Pinto and Aristotle Kallis (eds), Rethinking Fascism and Dictatorship in Europe (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
The role of the Catholic Church, following its influence and then defection, can be found in these works: Norman B. Cooper, Catholicism and the Franco Regime (London: Sage, 1975); Frances Lannon, Privilege, Persecution and Prophecy: The Catholic Church in Spain, 1875–1975 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987); and Hilari Raguer, Gunpowder and Incense: The Catholic Church and the Spanish Civil War (London: Routledge, 2007).
The international context in which the regime unfolded and evolved is described in Sebastian Balfour and Paul Preston (eds), Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Century (London: Routledge, 1999); and Raanan Rein (ed.), Spain and the Mediterranean since 1898 (London: Routledge, 2007).
An overview of the economic developments of the country under the dictatorship can be seen in the following recent works: Sima Lieberman, Growth and Crisis in the Spanish Economy, 1940–93 (London: Routledge, 1995) and David Corkill and Joseph Harrison, Spain: A Modern European Economy (London: Ashgate, 2004).
A good introduction to the cultural evolution during Francoism is the book edited by David T. Gies, The Cambridge Companion to Modern Spanish Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). A recent and balanced essay on the subject is Jeremy Treglown, Franco’s Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory since 1936 (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2013).
The relationship between Franco and the monarchists is analysed in detail in the biography of Franco’s successor by Paul Preston, Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy (London: Harper, 2004). The same author is responsible for the more intense work on Franco’s repression of his enemies, in the Civil War and the long postwar period: The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth Century Spain (London: Harper, 2012).
The legacy of that war and its consequent dictatorship can be seen in several recent analyses: Paloma Aguilar, Memory and Amnesia: The Role of the Spanish Civil War in the Transition to Democracy (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2002); Helen Graham, The War and its Shadows: Spain’s Civil War in Europe’s Long Twentieth Century (Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2012); and Antonio Cazorla, Franco: The Biography of the Myth (London: Routledge, 2014).
Biographies
General Franco already has a large volume of biographies that give accounts of both his personal and political life. Leaving aside the works published during his lifetime, to a greater or lesser extent weighted by their pro- or anti-Francoist militancy, one might cite a small number of studies in English that have high historiographic value.
First, the famous work of Hispanist Paul Preston must be singled out as the best and most exhaustive study on the theme: Franco: A Biography (London: HarperCollins, 1993). In the same line, but less extensive, two other equally valuable works should be mentioned: that of Juan Pablo Fusi, Franco: A Biography (London: Routledge, 1987) and that of Sheelagh Ellwood, Franco (London: Routledge, 1994). An interesting psychological approach to Franco’s character is by Gabrielle Ashford Hodges, Franco: A Concise Biography (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000). And perhaps the most recent re-evaluation of this historical figure is by Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios, Franco: A Personal and Political Biography (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014).
1. Stamps showing Franco in his 40s, 50s and 60s
2. Franco as a commander in the African Army, 1916
3. Franco as Caudillo after the victory of 1939
4. Franco and Hitler at Hendaye (on the Spanish–French frontier), 23 October 1940
5. Franco as Caudillo and head of state, late 1950s
6. Franco and his wife Carmen at a social event in the mid-1960s
7. Franco and Prince Juan Carlos in 1972
8. The front cover of a book of Franco’s speeches, published in 1939
9. Postcard depicting General Franco with ‘Long Live Spain, Italy, Germany and Portugal’ slogans and flags – from the time of the Spanish Civil War
10. Franco on the cover of Time magazine, October 1943
11. A 1953 coin featuring Franco
12. The cover of a book of caricatures published in Latin America (Uruguay and Argentina) in 1937
13. The Generalissimo, a poster issued by the Madrid Defence Council (Junta de Defensa de Madrid) in late 1936
14. Caricature of Franco published in an exiled Republican magazine in 1953, the year in which Franco allowed the US to build military bases in Spain. The caption reads ‘Very well paid!’
15. Caricature of Franco published in exile in France by a Republican organisation during the 1940s
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