A01=Javier Rodrigo
Author_Javier Rodrigo
Biography
Category=DNBH
Category=JPFQ
Category=NHD
Category=NHTV
Contemporary Spain
Democratic Spain
Dictatorship
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Francisco Franco
Historical narratives
Political motivations
Popular stereotypes
Post-civil war period
Public image
Social construction
Spanish Civil War
Product details
- ISBN 9781855663831
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 16 Dec 2025
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Is Spain really still tied - culturally, politically, and emotionally - to the dictator Francisco Franco? What was (and is) his place in the public imaginary? What remains today of the man and his legacy?
This book examines the public image of Franco and the social construction(s) of his public biography over four different periods: the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the post-civil war period (1939-1949), the rest of the dictatorship (1950-1975), and the democratic period and recent times (1975-2020). Delving into biography, narratives, and public and political motivations, it analyses the role that the idea of Franco has played and continues to play in contemporary Spain. It argues that the multiplicity of narratives that have existed in Spain and abroad regarding the figure of Franco are closely related to both the rhetoric and images generated by those in power and a sort of popular 'banal Franco' which takes in multiple stereotypes. This latter concept is central to understanding not only Franco's importance in contemporary Spain but also the fervent allegiance to his figures by a substantial part of Spanish society. Providing a complex picture of how the public image of the dictator has been constructed over time, the book addresses how ordinary Spaniards have imagined Franco and what their sources for doing so were.
JAVIER RODRIGO is Full Professor of History at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
