Читать книгу A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War - Paul Preston - Страница 7

There have been several thousand books on the Spanish Civil War and many of them are extremely long. The present volume aims to provide the new reader with a manageable guide to the labyrinth. It is interpretative rather than descriptive although ample use has been made of quotation to give a flavour of the period. It is not a book which sets out to find a perfect balance between both sides. I lived for several years under Franco’s dictatorship. It was impossible not to be aware of the repression of workers and students, the censorship and the prisons. As late as 1975 political prisoners were still being executed. Despite what Franco supporters claim, I do not believe that Spain derived any benefit from the military rising of 1936 and the Nationalist victory of 1939. Many years devoted to the study of Spain before and during the 1930s have convinced me that, while many mistakes were made, the Spanish Republic was an attempt to provide a better way of life for the humbler members of a repressive society. Accordingly, there is little sympathy here for the Spanish right, but I hope there is some understanding. This new edition takes into account the very considerable body of research which had been published since its first appearance in 1986. It also draws on my own ongoing research on Franco and on Mussolini’s role in the Spanish Civil War.

My early interest in Spain was stimulated by the postgraduate seminar run at the University of Reading by Hugh Thomas. I have learned an enormous amount during my friendship with Herbert Southworth who has always been prodigal with his hospitality and his knowledge. I also derived a lot from conversations over many years with Raymond Carr, Norman Cooper, Denis Smyth, Angel Viñas, Julian Casanova, Manuel González García, Jerónimo Gonzalo and Martin Blinkhorn. More recently, the historiography of the Spanish Civil War has been profoundly changed by the research of Angela Cenarro, Helen Graham, Gerald Howson, Enrique Moradiellos, Alberto Reig Tapia and Ismael Saz. I have gained greatly from reading their work and many hours of conversation.

My friends Paul Heywood and Sheelagh Ellwood gave me marvellous support during the writing of the first edition. Their role in this second version has been assumed by Helen Graham. I remain grateful to Juliet Gardiner who initially encouraged me to undertake this book and then saw it through the press with common sense and sparkling good humour. In that regard, the book has been more fortunate than it deserves, for this second edition has also found a model editor, patient, sensitive and generous, in Philip Gwyn Jones of HarperCollins. My wife Gabrielle is, as ever, my shrewdest critic. With such a team of friends to help, it seems astonishing that any book could still have shortcomings. Unfortunately, it does and they are mine.