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Told for the first time in English, Paul Preston`s new book tells the story of a preventable tragedy that cost many thousands of lives and ruined tens of thousands more at the end of the Spanish Civil War.This is the story of an avoidable humanitarian tragedy that cost many thousands of lives and ruined tens of thousands more.It has many protagonists but centres on three individuals. One, Dr Juan Negrin, the victim of what might be termed a conspiracy of fools, tried to prevent it. Two bore responsibility for what transpired. One of those, Julian Besteiro, was guilty of culpable naivety. The other, Segismundo Casado behaved with a remarkable combination of cynicism, arrogance and selfishness.On 5 March 1939, the eternally malcontent Colonel Casado launched a military coup against the government of Juan Negrin. Ironically, he ensured that the end of the Spanish Civil War was almost identical to its beginning. As Mola, Franco and the other conspirators of 1936 had done, Casado led a part of the Republican Army in revolt against the Republican government. He claimed, as they had done, and equally without foundation, that Negrin`s government was the puppet of the Communist Party and that a coup was imminent to establish a Communist dictatorship.Casado`s ambition was to go down in history as the man who ended the Spanish Civil War. Instead he ensured the Republic ended in catastrophe and shame as Negrin`s attempts to achieve an honourable and negotiated peace with guarantees for the civilian population were thwarted and Franco and his forces wreaked havoc and revenge. Madrid collapsed into civil war and two thousand people died. Refugees fled reprisals in their thousands and those who couldn`t escape met a terrible fate.Paul Preston, the leading historian of 20th century Spain, tells this shocking story for the first time in English. It is a harrowing tale of how the flawed decisions of politicans can lead to tragedy..

La llarga trajectòria historiogràfica del professor Paul Preston li acredita com el més rellevant continuador de la fecunda tradició del hispanisme britànic. El present volum vol constituir un homena

From the preeminent historian of 20th century Spain Paul Preston, Architects of Terror is a new history of how paranoia, conspiracy and anti-Semitism was used to justify the military coup of 1936 and enabled the construction of a dictatorship built on violence and persecution. It is the previously untold story of how antisemitic beliefs were weaponised to justify and propagate the Franco overthrow of liberal Spain. The Spanish military coup of 1936 was launched to overturn the social and economic reforms of the democratic Second Republic, and its educational and cultural challenges to the established order.

WINNER OF THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2021 THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2021A SUNDAY TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEARA dramatic, gripping account of the rise and fall of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell from the acclaimed author of A Very English Scandal. 'The best biography yet of the media magnate Robert Maxwell - by turns engrossing, amusing and appalling' Robert Harris, Sunday Times'Electrifying... the supreme chronicler of modern British scandals' Mail on SundayRobert Maxwell was a very British success.Born an Orthodox Jew, he escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, fought in the Second World War, and was decorated for his heroism with the Military Cross. He went on to become a Labour MP and an astonishingly successful businessman, owning a number of newspapers and publishing companies. But after his dead body was discovered floating in waters around his superyacht, his empire fell apart as long-hidden debts and unscrupulous dealings came to light.

The life of the complex, ruthless adversary of General Franco, whose life spanned much of Spain's turbulence in the 20th century. From 1939 to 1975, the Spanish Communist Party, effectively lead for two decades by Santiago Carrillo, was the most determined opponent of General Franco's Nationalist regime. Admired by many on the left as a revolutionary and a pillar of the anti-Franco struggle and hated by others as a Stalinist gravedigger of the revolution, Santiago Carrillo was arguably the dictator's most consistent left-wing enemy. For many on the right, Carrillo was a monster to be vilified as a mass murderer for his activities during the Civil War. But his survival owed to certain qualities that he had in abundance - a capacity for hard work, stamina and endurance, writing and oratorical skills, intelligence and cunning - though honesty and loyalty were not among them. One by one he turned on those who helped him in his desire for advancement, revealing the ruthless streak that he shared with Franco, and a zeal for rewriting his past. Drawing on the numerous, continuously revised accounts Carillo created of his life, and contrasting them with those produced by his friends and enemies, Spain's greatest modern historian Paul Preston unravels the legend of a devastating and controversial figure at the heart of 20th century Spanish politics.

From the foremost historian of modern Spain comes the bloody, much misunderstood story of how, from 1874 to the present day the Spanish people were devastatingly betrayed by their political class, military and Church.This comprehensive history of modern Spain chronicles the fomenting of violent social division throughout the country by institutionalised corruption and startling political incompetence. Most spectacularly during the Primo de Rivera and Franco dictatorships, grotesque and shameless corruption went hand-in-hand with inept policies that prolonged Spains economic backwardness well into the 1950s.A People Betrayed looks back to the years prior to 1923 when electoral corruption excluded the masses from organized politics and gave them a choice between apathetic acceptance and violent revolution. Bitter social conflict, economic tensions and conflict between centralist nationalism and regional independence movements then exploded into the civil war of 1936-1939.It took the horrors of that war and the dictatorship that followed to break the pattern. The moderation shared by the progressive right and a chastened left underlay a bloodless transition to democracy after 1975. Yet, as before, corruption and political incompetence continued to have a corrosive effect on political coexistence and social cohesion.Sparkling with vivid portraits of politicians and army officers, some corrupt and others clean, recounting the triumphs and disasters of Kings Alfonso XIII and Juan Carlos, A People Betrayed unravels the mystery of why both right and left have been unable or unwilling to deal with corruption and the pernicious clash between Spanish centralist nationalism and regional desires for independence.

Las tres Españas del 36 ofrece una perspectiva radicalmente distinta y original de la compleja trama de la guerra civil española. Rompe con el tópico de que fue una lucha entre extremos llevada a cabo por fanaticos apasionados de la derecha y de la izquiera, por fascistas contra comunistas, por catolicos militantes contra ateos convencidos, por separatistas contra centralistas, por campesinos hambrientos contra terratenientes ricos. Mas alla de las atrocidades y los odios, este libro descifra un pais distinto, la tercera España que, con el paso del tiempo, desembocaria en la España democratica de hoy. Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera evoluciona desde su adhesion al alzamiento a la reflexion para encontrar medidas de reconciliacion, pero aun asi muere fusilado en Alicante. Su muerte y la de su hermano Fernando destrozan la vida de su hermana Pilar. Salvador De Madariaga dedica su existencia en el exilio a la busqueda de la reconciliacion entre las dos Españas.

Si hubiera de medirse el peso político que las fuerzas de la derecha y las fuerzas de la izquierda han tenido en la España del siglo XX, no cabe duda de que la balanaza se inclinará del lado de las primeras. Sin embargo, paradojicamente, los historiadores

Love, war, duty, faith, betrayal and belief - a revolutionary new view of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes and experiences of the women who endured it, by the greatest historian of Spain: 'Passionate and deeply moving... when Preston writes about these women, you feel as if you are in their company.' Scotland on Sunday'Four extraordinary women whose personal histories should dispel any illusions that the Spanish Civil War was an all-male war...Written with a shrewd eye and a sure touch, the book is full of wonderful stories and acute observations. Above all, these are compellingly human dramas in which moral issues, right and wrong, Fascism and Communism, melt away.' Sunday Telegraph

La larga trayectoria historiográfica del profesor Paul Preston le acredita como el más relevante continuador de la fecunda tradición del hispanismo británico. El presente volumen quiere constituir un homenaje que completa el que se le rindiera con su nombramiento como doctor honoris causa de nuestra Universidad. En los textos aqui seleccionados se articula un enfoque coherente y, a la vez, complejo de la contemporaneidad española en su profunda imbricacion con la historia del siglo XX europeo. Analizando dinamicas politicas y estructurales tanto como las vivencias y experiencias de personajes relevantes, se configura una aportacion tan rica en el plano historico como en el historiografico.

La derrota republicana en la Guerra Civil, los cuarenta años de franquismo y el pacto de silencio de la Transición dejaron en manos extranjeras el análisis historiográfico de los acontecimientos que llevaron al hundimiento de la Republica. Buena muestra de ello es este libro, en el que diez prestigiosos hispanistas ponen de manifiesto dos hechos fundamentales. El primero, que la Guerra Civil española tuvo su origen en una serie de enfrentamientos sociales; el segundo, que la lucha fratricida constituyo un episodio mas de la guerra mundial que finalizo en 1945.Como consecuencia de todo ello, durante los tres años de contienda la Republica española sufrio un doble asedio: por un lado, las disensiones internas le impidieron llevar a cabo un esfuerzo belico eficaz; por otro, las fuerzas del fascismo que colaboraron con los sublevados encontraron entre los Estados democraticos a unos complices que contribuyeron a alargar el conflicto que acababa de iniciarse y que pronto se extenderia por todo el continente, y por el resto del mundo.t;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'Nadie se atreve a reformar la economia cuando parece que va bien; y, sin embargo, eso es justo lo que propone Miguel Sebastian en este libro: que haya un sistema que alerte de los excesos de los periodos de bonanza, para no cometer en los errores ...