Memories of the Spanish Civil War

In this reflective oral history enquiry into the popular memory of the civil war in Spain, Ruth Sanz Sabido offers us pertinent and fascinating insights into the now disappearing world of village Spain, where the war is still being fought over. But as her study reminds us, this war is not so much the one actually waged in the late 1930s, as the one made and embedded discursively afterwards by the victorious and long-lived Franco dictatorship, a regime whose cultural and social power has lasted into the present day. This theoretically literate but still highly accessible account opens up for us the granular texture of local life and language, while also providing the crucial broad explanatory context to the memory wars raging in Spain today.--Helen Graham, Professor of Spanish History at Royal Holloway, University of London Ruth Sanz Sabido's book makes a compelling case for treating Spain's collective dementia regarding its Civil War by contrasting the experiences of specific people and places with the myths created by the Franco regime and perpetuated by post-Franco governments. Her message comes none too soon. Time is running out for the generations that remember those experiences.--Richard Barker, Spanish Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point In its analysis of oral testimonies, Memories of the Spanish Civil War offers a superb combination of scientific rigour, empathy and sensitivity. By recuperating silenced voices from a community that is marked by the experience of Francoist violence, Ruth Sanz Sabido provides an essential insight into the complexity of individual and collective memory.-- ngela Cenarro, Professor in the Department of Modern and Contemporary History, Universidad de Zaragoza