Franco (Life&Times)

Francisco Franco (1892-1975) grew up in the quiet backwater of El Ferrol in north-west Spain and went on to become one of the most controversial political figures of the twentieth century. His ruthless pursuit of victory in the bloody Spanish Civil War alone guaranteed him fame and notoriety. The general went on to rule Spain for nearly forty years with an authoritarian zeal that scarcely diminished in old age. Variously courted by the liberal democracies of Britain and France, the Fascist alliance of Hitler and Mussolini and then by anti-communist administrations in Washington, Franco played a major role on the world stage until his death in 1975. Even now both Franco the man and Franco the authoritarian and military leader still excite huge interest. A new wave of revisionist historians have recently sought to paint a more charitable view of Franco and his achievements, a move that has provoked a new and bitter debate in his native land. Thus this concise but authoritative biography of General Franco thirty years after his death could hardly be better timed; a chance to see the man behind the myths and to assess the impact he made not just on Spain but on the entire history of the twentieth century.