The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain, by Paul Preston
2013; Oxford University Press; Volume: 128; Issue: 535 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/ehr/cet306
ISSN1477-4534
Autores Tópico(s)Spanish History and Politics
ResumoAs this notice is compiled, the normally latent curse of Spanish history—a national urge to self-destruction in response to crisis—is again feverishly manifest. The Constitution of 1978, centre-piece of the most lauded political settlement of contemporary history, is under pressure. The nation made in civil war two centuries ago, and re-composed in 1876, 1939 and 1978, is threatened by dissolution. If the seemingly inevitable earthquake strikes again, will it resemble the ‘velvet divorce’ of Czechs and Slovaks in 1993, or will the outcome be another mutual bloodbath as in 1936? A background element to the current destabilisation is the war of polemics over 1936 triggered by the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (ARMH). Founded in 2000, it was an overdue and justified attempt, based on modern archaeological and forensic techniques, to endow families of the Civil War’s pro-republican victims with a ‘closure’ denied them by both dictatorship and democracy. But in 2004 the campaign took an egregious change of direction through its political, financial and ultimately legal endorsement by a new PSOE (centre-left) government. In general, supporters of the ARMH are dedicated to the memory of the Second Republic. Among them, Paul Preston is a distinguished foreign representative.
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