UW Press: Franco: A Personal and Political Biography

Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians
Best Book for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

“An intimate portrait of Franco the man, provoking a lively and necessary debate about the nature of the dictator’s regime.”
—Julius Ruiz, author of Franco’s Justice

General Francisco Franco ruled Spain for nearly forty years, as one of the most powerful and controversial leaders in that nation’s long history. He has been the subject of many biographies, several of them more than a thousand pages in length, but all the preceding works have tended toward one extreme of interpretation or the other. This is the first comprehensive scholarly biography of Franco in English that is objective and balanced in its coverage, treating all three major aspects of his life—personal, military, and political. The coauthors, both renowned historians of Spain, present a deeply researched account that has made extensive use of the Franco Archive (long inaccessible to historians). They have also conducted in-depth interviews with his only daughter to explain better his family background, personal life, and marital environment, as well as his military and political career.

Franco: A Personal and Political Biography depicts his early life, explains his career and rise to prominence as an army officer who became Europe’s youngest interwar brigadier general in 1926, and then discusses his role in the affairs of the troubled Second Spanish Republic (1931–36). Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios examine in detail how Franco became dictator and how his leadership led to victory in the Spanish Civil War that consolidated his regime. They also explore Franco’s role in the great repression that accompanied the Civil War—resulting in tens of thousands of executions—and examine at length his controversial role in World War II. This masterful biography highlights Franco’s metamorphoses and adaptations to retain power as politics, culture, and economics shifted in the four decades of his dictatorship.

“Franco is that dread thing, ‘complex. He will frustrate a desire for black-and-whiteness. . . . The new biography by Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios will tell you what to think about Franco. Even better, it will tell you how to think about him. That is a huge gift to an interested reader.”
—National Review

“This highly readable and extremely insightful biography situates Franco not only in his Spanish context but also in the global context of twentieth-century dictatorships.”
—Michael Seidman, Wall Street Journal

“Masterfully combines research on Franco’s life and regime with new and unique sources including Franco’s private papers and interviews with Franco’s only daughter. It will appeal to a broad readership including anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century Spain, the Spanish civil war, and the Franco regime.”
—Joan Maria Thomàs, University Rovira-Virgili, Spain

“Francisco Franco is the only major twentieth-century dictator to die peacefully in his bed—after almost four decades in power. His regime was brutal, despicable, and in many respects ineffectual, yet it did not join the Axis powers in World War II and was a transitional type between traditional military dictatorships and more recent totalitarian regimes. This book, impeccably based on the available sources and displaying sober judgment, could well be the definitive work on the subject.”
—Walter Laqueur, author of Fascism: Past, Present, Future

“This compelling biography of Francisco Franco situates the Caudillo in his Spanish and global context. It covers every aspect of Franco’s life—from birth to death, from the political to the personal—displaying a judicious and critical understanding of this very controversial figure.”
—Michael Seidman, author of The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the Spanish Civil War

“At last we are presented with a genuinely objective, balanced, above all dispassionate biography, written by two vastly experienced and distinguished scholars. The book’s cool and measured conclusions—always lucidly presented—reflect almost uncannily the meticulously pragmatic approach of the subject himself to the numberless military and political issues his career confronted. From being a twentieth-century pariah of world politics, Franco has now come into his own in terms of serious academic attention.”
—Robert Stradling, author of Your Children Will Be Next: Bombing and Propaganda in the Spanish Civil War

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