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<\/p>\n\n\n\n1936-1975, by Stanley G. Payne, 1987, The University of Wisconsin Press <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This book is long (642 pages) and very detailed. There were many individuals involved, none of whom I had heard of before (with the exception of Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini). The research that went into this book was evident with the many endnotes at the end of each chapter. Despite the amount of detail, I was fascinated by the story of Franco’s regime, especially since I knew very little about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To sum of the story of Franco’s almost 40 years as the dictator of Spain, I think one word describes it best: “complicated.” Franco seized power as the head of state after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War. He was quasi-elected by the officers in the army and held that position until his death toward the end of 1975. How did he do it? Primarily by not overplaying his hand, constructing a very complicated political system, and by using his Catholic faith as a tool to garner acceptance by the population of Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The author uses some terms that I didn’t understand (Carlism, corporatism, syndicalism, etc,). I wish he would have provided more detail on what these terms meant, but I think I figured them out by the time I finished reading the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I probably wouldn’t recommend this book to my friends because of the complexity, amount of detail, and length, I was glad I read it though because of what I learned, not only about politics in Spain, but also about the nature of an authoritarian and repressive government that was allowed to exist for so long in a western European country despite significant opposition both internal and external. I would like to be able to summarize how Franco did it, but it would require summarizing each chapter of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the whole, I think Professor Payne painted a balanced picture of Franco, both his strengths and weaknesses and how Franco used his strengths and compensated for his weaknesses to hold on to his power. It was interesting to read at a time when there might be some comparisons to be made between Franco’s style and that of the current U.S. president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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1936-1975, by Stanley G. Payne, 1987, The University of Wisconsin Press This book is long (642 pages) and very detailed. There were many individuals involved, none of whom I had heard of before (with the exception of Franco, Hitler, and …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[20,16,38],"class_list":["post-4234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-four-star","tag-history","tag-non-fiction","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4234"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4240,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234\/revisions\/4240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}