Presentación del libro «Franco», de Julián Casanova

Welcome remarks by Luis García Montero, Director of the Cervantes Institute. Remarks by Raquel Reguera, editor at Editorial Crítica, and discussion between Julián Casanova, author of the book, and Luis García Montero. Summary: An essential biography to introduce 21st-century readers to one of the central figures in Spanish history. No one has shaped the contemporary history of Spain as much as Francisco Franco Bahamonde (1892-1975). However, despite his omnipresence—from coins to classrooms, from the NODO newsreels to public debate—the dictator remains largely unknown, hidden behind a tangle of preconceptions and clichés, Manichean thinking and lies. Professor Julián Casanova, the foremost historian of his generation and the leading expert on the period, offers us an informed and revealing biography of the man and the figure who determined the destiny of Spain for four decades. Fifty years after his death, Julián Casanova reveals aspects unknown to his contemporaries and paints, for new generations, the definitive portrait of the dictator. To do so, he has delved into dozens of testimonies, books, and documents which, combined with the depth of a lifetime of academic and research experience, allow him to offer an approach that is as precise and novel as it is relevant and thought-provoking. Franco began his assault on power with a military uprising and achieved it through bloodshed in a civil war. Until then, he had been just one among his media-savvy brothers, among the ruthless Africanists, and among the rising stars tempted by the counter-revolution. The assumption of absolute power profoundly altered both his personality and his public image, as well as his inner circle. Despite lacking a consolidated ideological or programmatic framework and possessing little charisma, his legacy forms part of our recent past. Today, with this masterful account, the biographical reconstruction is complete. https://www.planetadelibros.com/libro... ▶ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/InstitutoCerv...