DOCSLIB.ORG

Paul Preston

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Paul Preston INTERVIEWING PAUL PRESTON MARCEL PROUST CHAIR OF THE EUROPEAN AND IBERO-AMERICAN ACADEMY OF YUSTE Enrique Moradiellos: We would like to thank Professor Paul Preston on behalf of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation for agreeing to have this virtual talk, which will later be printed in the Foundation’s newsletter. Professor Preston is probably the best Hispanist −of course British and Anglophone− in active employment. He is a worthy heir to a saga that will shortly turn a hundred years at the hands of previous Hispanists, in particular Gerald Brenan, the author of the great book entitled The Spanish Labyrinth, published in 1943, in the middle of the World War. Professor Preston was born three years after the publication of that book, in 1946, in Liverpool, in a time of a very harsh post-world war, a time of deprivation, hardship and misery that, however, also had the positive side of seeing the beginning of the process of European integration, of overcoming the antagonisms of continental countries, which has led us to the present European Union. Moreover, in that same year, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave his famous and renowned speech in Zurich appealing to a union of European states, which he called the United States of Europe, as the only remedy to avoid a new continental war; a union that could promote peace, progress and well-being by avoiding the horrors of the past. Seventy years later, in 2006, Professor Preston joined the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste as a member, occupying the Marcel Proust Chair. Welcome to this talk at your home, at the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste. How was your interest in the history of Spain forged? What ended up making you what you are today: the most renowned Hispanist in the world? Paul Preston: It was a chain of events. As you pointed out, I was born in 1946 in Liverpool, a city very much punished by the blitz (the German aerial bombardments in the world war) as it was the port of entry of American supplies. I remember from my childhood that there was a lot of rubble left in the city and that many of the adult conversations were on the subject, which meant that children played Germans against British. At school, I did not study Spanish and I had no background in the history of Spain. I also remember that when I got older, one of my hobbies was to build World War II plane mockups. Later, I began to read books about the war, but more than about the war itself I NEWSLETTER OF THE ACADEMY OF YUSTE Nº 09. October 2020 1 ISSN 2695-7027 was interested in its origins and why that catastrophe had occurred. I was then lucky enough to get a scholarship to study at Oxford University. It should be borne in mind that at the time it was not normal for a working-class boy from the north of England to come to Oxford, so it was a great opportunity for me. At Oxford, I learned many things, although I have to say that the degree in Modern History, which was what interested me, focused a lot on British constitutional history and little on contemporary history, so I was left longing to study more about World War II. When I finished my undergraduate degree, I had doubts about what I was going to do, but I was sure I wanted to do some research concerning the origins of the world conflict. I only knew a little French, but I did not feel like digging deeper into French history. Then the opportunity to go to the University of Reading came up, where a graduate school had been created and I could do a master’s degree focused on the history of the interwar period. Also, luckily, the structure of one of the subjects allowed you to carry out a double research and two dissertations, and one of them was about the Spanish Civil War. I knew practically nothing about this subject; I had only done a term paper at Oxford. However, I was so lucky that the teacher of the subject was Hugh Thomas, the great expert on the Spanish Civil War at the time (he had published his famous homonymous work in 1961), besides being a fantastic and fun teacher. In class we were four students and that allowed different people to come to tell us their life experience as, for instance, the admiral who had commanded the British navy during the siege of Bilbao and a volunteer of the Condor Legion. All this made me very interested in the Spanish conflict and I began to read everything I could on the subject in English. However, I soon realised the need I had to learn Spanish, so I became friends with some Colombian college students, who I had a great time with, and this allowed me to learn Spanish better and travel to Spain. That is how the story of my relationship with Spain and its history began. E.M.: When mentioning Hugh Thomas, you are referring to one of the teachers who you have always admitted has influenced your training. However, judging from some of your writings, there were also two other masters in your academic life: Raymond Carr and Herbert R. Southworth. To what extent did these two personalities shape your interest in Spanish issues? P.P.: My relationship with Raymond Carr was quite complex. My former pupil and dear colleague, Professor Helen Graham, could say the same. Deep down, I think Raymond was not very comfortable interacting with working-class people, because he was a bit elitist. Going back to the question: when I finished NEWSLETTER OF THE ACADEMY OF YUSTE Nº 09. October 2020 2 ISSN 2695-7027 my MA in Reading, I returned to Oxford to do my Phd with Raymond. It turned out, however, that he had taken a sabbatical leave and had gone to the United States, so I got a director who knew nothing about the history of Spain. And here I make an excursus: with my doctoral students I have always followed the maxim "from the cradle to the grave" (accompanying them throughout their research and following their progress from the beginning to the end). Returning to the subject, I must point out that the one who really helped me to do the doctoral thesis was Joaquín Romero Maura, who was the assistant professor of Raymond Carr, one of the smartest people I have ever met in my life. In sum, at the time of writing my thesis I did not relate much with Raymond Carr, although later we did have a closer and more direct relationship. Before reading my thesis, I had published an article on the monarchical conspirators in the Second Spanish Republic in a fairly important journal called the Journal of Contemporary History. On that occasion, I asked Hugh Thomas whom I should send an offprint to in case someone should be interested. He mentioned Herbert R. Southworth. I hesitated and said to myself: how can I send it to him if he is like the great inquisitor? Because he had already published the book El mito de la cruzada de Franco (The Myth of Franco’s Crusade) (1963), a very harsh book against the Francoists. However, I sent it to him and I received a really moving letter that came to say: My friend, at last, it has been decades before arriving to this point. After that, I felt as if he had made me his heir. I visited him often and he became my teacher, a sort of adoptive father with whom I had an incredibly affectionate relationship for many years. When he got sick, I called him almost every day and when he died one of the things I thought was: how awful! The amount of wisdom that has died with this man, because what he knew about the period of the Spanish civil war was incredible, since he had worked in the press service of the Republic being in Washington and in New York. If I were to say which of my teachers I owe more to, I would certainly say to Herbert R. Southworth. E.M.: In terms of academic career, once you decided that your vocation was to be a Hispanic historian, you were a professor at the University of Reading, from there you went to Queen Mary College of the University of London and finally to the Chair "Cañada Blanch Príncipe de Asturias" of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Throughout this career, how have you seen that the university teaching of Spanish history has changed from the vantage point of retirement? How to look at that long academic professional life career? NEWSLETTER OF THE ACADEMY OF YUSTE Nº 09. October 2020 3 ISSN 2695-7027 P.P.: There is not much I can say about Reading University, because I only substituted Hugh Thomas for a short time. At that time, I was still an apprentice. From the time of Queen Mary College in London I have some fantastic memories. I found it a very pleasant and welcoming institution. In many universities, and more at prensent, the environment can be toxic because of the great rivalry that exists to get financial funds or teaching places. But Queen Mary College was like a family I have fond memories of. During the years I spent there, from 1975 to 1991, at least in the history department, there was a family atmosphere and I had a great time.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Paul Preston. Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy
    Paul Preston. Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy . New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2004, 608 pp. by Lynn Purkey Paul Preston, a distinguished historian in the field of twentieth century Spain, has written a timely and engaging new biography Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dicta­ torship to Democracy. The book is an insightful and often probing biography of this visionary King, while also tracing Spain’s transition from fascism to democracy during the tenuous period following Francisco Franco’s death (1975). Divided into eleven chronologically arranged chapters, the text is followed by an extensive bibliography, endnotes and an index. Moreover, the impeccably researched work boasts a wealth of interviews and private correspondence as well as the usual bibliography. In addition to being of interest to Hispanists and historians, Juan Carlos appeals to the casual reader, since it is an intensely personal look at Juan Carlos and other members of the House of Borbon, as well as being an emi­ nently readable text. Juan Carlos begins by recounting the history of the exiled royal family during the Second Republic (1931-1936) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), during which Juan Carlos was born (1938). It further catalogues the political intrigues and machinations that characterize the tense relationship between Franco and the exiled King Alfonso XIII (1886-1941), and his heir Don Juan de Borbon (1913-1993). whom Franco excluded from rule with the passage of the Law of Succession, which granted the dictator the right to choose his own successor. One of the author’s key contentions is the royal family’s dedication to service above personal considerations, which has been a hallmark of Juan Carlos’s up­ bringing and indeed his reign as King of Spain.
    [Show full text]
  • NEWSLETTER Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies May 2015 Issue
    21 NEWSLETTER Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies May 2015 issue Inside tHis Issue Conference 2015 ACIS Conference………… 1 Obituary Sir Raymond Call for Papers Carr…………………… 2 finally ends on 15th May 2015 Lectures, Conferences………... 3 Jobs ……..…….…4, 5, 6 On the ACIS website you can find the Call Events………….……..7 for papers http://www.iberianstudies.net/wp/wp- content/uploads/2015/03/ACIS-2015-CALL- for-PAPERS_DP-2.pdf as well as a link to Post Graduate Bursaries (deadline 15th of May). Booking forms are also available through the ACIS website: http://www.iberianstudies.net/wp/wp- content/uploads/2015/04/2015-ACIS-Final- Conference-Booking-Form-4.pdf th The Early bird rate ends on the 29 of May. 1 * Obituary SIR RAYMOND CARR ACIS is mourning the death of one of its former honorary presidents. On 19th April 2015 Sir Raymond Carr died aged 96. A historian and Oxford don, he specialized in the histories of Sweden, Latin America and Spain. “Though he was one of Britain’s greatest historians, Carr was far better known in Spain than in his native land”, writes Paul Preston. Arguably his finest work, Spain 1808-1939, was published in 1966 and remained a defining text on Spanish history to this day. His involvement with the country began in 1950, on the honeymoon that followed his marriage to Sara Strickland, which continued on many research trips conducted in university vacations in the 1950s and 1960s. Carr taught at Oxford from the 1960s till 1987, when on retiring he was knighted. Apart from his academic excellence Raymond Carr is also well known for his eccentricities and “racy social life”, serving behind a bar in Sweden when on vacation from Oxford in his fifties, throwing legendary parties at his Oxford home with his wife Sara.
    [Show full text]
  • The Importance of the Catholic School Ethos Or Four Men in a Bateau
    THE AMERICAN COVENANT, CATHOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATING FOR AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL ETHOS OR FOUR MEN IN A BATEAU A dissertation submitted to the Kent State University College of Education, Health, and Human Services in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Ruth Joy August 2018 A dissertation written by Ruth Joy B.S., Kent State University, 1969 M.S., Kent State University, 2001 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2018 Approved by _________________________, Director, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Natasha Levinson _________________________, Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Averil McClelland _________________________, Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Catherine E. Hackney Accepted by _________________________, Director, School of Foundations, Leadership and Kimberly S. Schimmel Administration ........................ _________________________, Dean, College of Education, Health and Human Services James C. Hannon ii JOY, RUTH, Ph.D., August 2018 Cultural Foundations ........................ of Education THE AMERICAN COVENANT, CATHOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATING FOR AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL ETHOS. OR, FOUR MEN IN A BATEAU (213 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Natasha Levinson, Ph. D. Dozens of academic studies over the course of the past four or five decades have shown empirically that Catholic schools, according to a wide array of standards and measures, are the best schools at producing good American citizens. This dissertation proposes that this is so is partly because the schools are infused with the Catholic ethos (also called the Catholic Imagination or the Analogical Imagination) and its approach to the world in general. A large part of this ethos is based upon Catholic Anthropology, the Church’s teaching about the nature of the human person and his or her relationship to other people, to Society, to the State, and to God.
    [Show full text]
  • Ackelsberg L
    • • I I Free Women of Spain Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women I Martha A. Ackelsberg l I f I I .. AK PRESS Oakland I West Virginia I Edinburgh • Ackelsberg. Martha A. Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women Lihrary of Congress Control Numher 2003113040 ISBN 1-902593-96-0 Published hy AK Press. Reprinted hy Pcrmi"inn of the Indiana University Press Copyright 1991 and 2005 by Martha A. Ackelsherg All rights reserved Printed in Canada AK Press 674-A 23rd Street Oakland, CA 94612-1163 USA (510) 208-1700 www.akpress.org [email protected] AK Press U.K. PO Box 12766 Edinburgh. EH8 9YE Scotland (0131) 555-5165 www.akuk.com [email protected] The addresses above would be delighted to provide you with the latest complete AK catalog, featur­ ing several thousand books, pamphlets, zines, audio products, videos. and stylish apparel published and distributed bv AK Press. A1tern�tiv�l�! Uil;:1t r\llr "-""'l:-,:,i!'?� f2":' �!:::: :::::;:;.p!.::.;: ..::.:.:..-..!vo' :uh.. ,.",i. IIt;W� and updates, events and secure ordering. Cover design and layout by Nicole Pajor A las compafieras de M ujeres Libres, en solidaridad La lucha continua Puiio ell alto mujeres de Iberia Fists upraised, women of Iheria hacia horiz,ontes prePiados de luz toward horizons pregnant with light por rutas ardientes, on paths afire los pies en fa tierra feet on the ground La frente en La azul. face to the blue sky Atirmondo promesas de vida Affimling the promise of life desafiamos La tradicion we defy tradition modelemos la arcilla caliente we moLd the warm clay de un mundo que nace del doLor.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spanish Communist Party in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Vol
    The Defence of Madrid: The Spanish Communist Party in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Vol. Amanda Marie Spencer Ph. D. History Department of History, University of Sheffield June 2006 i Contents: - List of plates iii List of maps iv Summary v Introduction 5 1 The PCE during the Second Spanish Republic 17 2 In defence of the Republic 70 3 The defence of Madrid: The emergence of communist hegemony? 127 4 Hegemony vs. pluralism: The PCE as state-builder 179 5 Hegemony challenged 229 6 Hegemony unravelled. The demise of the PCE 274 Conclusion 311 Appendix 319 Bibliography 322 11 Plates Between pp. 178 and 179 I PCE poster on military instruction in the rearguard (anon) 2a PCE poster 'Unanimous obedience is triumph' (Pedraza Blanco) b PCE poster'Mando Unico' (Pedraza Blanco) 3 UGT poster'To defend Madrid is to defend Cataluna' (Marti Bas) 4 Political Commissariat poster'For the independence of Spain' (Renau) 5 Madrid Defence Council poster'First we must win the war' (anon) 6a Political Commissariat poster Training Academy' (Canete) b Political Commissariat poster'Care of Arms' (anon) 7 lzquierda Republicana poster 'Mando Unico' (Beltran) 8 Madrid Defence Council poster'Popular Army' (Melendreras) 9 JSU enlistment poster (anon) 10 UGT/PSUC poster'What have you done for victory?' (anon) 11 Russian civil war poster'Have you enlisted as a volunteer?' (D.Moor) 12 Poster'Sailors of Kronstadt' (Renau) 13 Poster 'Political Commissar' (Renau) 14a PCE Popular Front poster (Cantos) b PCE Popular Front poster (Bardasano) iii Maps 1 Central Madrid in 1931 2 Districts of Madrid in 1931 2 3 Province of Madrid 3 4 District of Cuatro Caminos 4 iv Summary The role played by the Spanish Communist Party (Partido Comunista de Espana, PCE) during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 remains controversial to this day.
    [Show full text]
  • Casanova, Julían, the Spanish Republic and Civil
    This page intentionally left blank The Spanish Republic and Civil War The Spanish Civil War has gone down in history for the horrific violence that it generated. The climate of euphoria and hope that greeted the over- throw of the Spanish monarchy was utterly transformed just five years later by a cruel and destructive civil war. Here, Julián Casanova, one of Spain’s leading historians, offers a magisterial new account of this crit- ical period in Spanish history. He exposes the ways in which the Republic brought into the open simmering tensions between Catholics and hard- line anticlericalists, bosses and workers, Church and State, order and revolution. In 1936, these conflicts tipped over into the sacas, paseos and mass killings that are still passionately debated today. The book also explores the decisive role of the international instability of the 1930s in the duration and outcome of the conflict. Franco’s victory was in the end a victory for Hitler and Mussolini, and for dictatorship over democracy. julián casanova is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. He is one of the leading experts on the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War and has published widely in Spanish and in English. The Spanish Republic and Civil War Julián Casanova Translated by Martin Douch CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521493888 © Julián Casanova 2010 This publication is in copyright.
    [Show full text]
  • Currículum Vitae Del Dr. Paul Preston (Liverpool, 1946)
    CURRÍCULUM VITAE DEL DR. PAUL PRESTON (LIVERPOOL, 1946) Trajectòria acadèmica L’any 1968 es va llicenciar en Lletres, el 1969 va obtenir el màster i l’any 1975 es va doctorar. Entre el 1973 i el 1975 va exercir com a professor d’Història a la Universitat de Reading (Anglaterra). Posteriorment i fins a l’any 1985 fou professor al Queen Mary College de la Universitat de Londres. Entre el 1985 i el 1991 fou catedràtic d’Història Contemporània i degà de la Facultat de Lletres al Queen Mary College de la Universitat de Londres, i entre els anys 1991 i 1994 va exercir com a catedràtic d’Història Internacional a la London School of Economics & Political Science, on també va dirigir el Departament d’Història Internacional. Des de l’any 1994 fins ara ha estat catedràtic Príncep d’Astúries d’Història Contemporània Espanyola i director del Centre Cañada Blanch d’Estudis de l’Espanya Contemporània de la London School of Economics & Political Science. Reconeixements i premis - Comanador de l’Orden de Mérito Civil, Espanya (1986) - Fellow of the British Academy (acadèmic de l’Acadèmia Britànica) (1994) - Premi Así fue - la Historia rescatada amb el llibre Las tres Españas del 36 (Plaza y Janés, Barcelona, 1998) - Comandant de l’Order of the British Empire (2000) - Premi Internacional Ramon Llull 2005 - Membre de l’Acadèmia Europea de Yuste, amb la Càtedra Marcel Proust (2006) - Premi Trias Fargas d’assaig pel llibre Idealistes sota les bales. Històries de la guerra civil (Barcelona: Proa Editorial, 2007) - Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica
    [Show full text]
  • Labour Movements and Memories of Spain
    Labour Movements and Memories of Spain Chris McConville Australian Studies, University of the Sunshine Coast Peter O'Connor died in June this year. O'Connor had fought in the Socialists, for example, praised Loach for his attack on Stalinism, International Brigades in Spain, joined the IRA, and helped refound and then returned to the charges made in Screen and at Edinburgh the Communist Party of Ireland. A requiem mass for the old nearly a quarter of a century earlier. Loach remained prisoner to the communist was held in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in 'dead weight of empiricism' and 'confused passivity in the face of Waterford.! Funerals for civil war volunteers like O'Connor occur difficult dramatic choices with "letting events flOW"'.5 Before the from time to time around the globe. They are occasions to be film's showing at the West Belfast Film festival, Mick O'Riordan, remarked on as oddities in the local press [a communist funeral in a who, a few years later, was to deliver the oration at Peter O'Connor's cathedral in Ireland!] and which, momentarily, draw together the funeral, called the film, a 'grotesque distortion', a response echoed remnant left of the inter-war labour movement. by former Brigadistas around the globe.6 Such funerals apart, the Spanish Revolution and Civil War rarely Historians too took Loach to task for making a film unlocated in evoke either faith or solidarity. For the labour movements most any Spanish historical context. For all Loach's courage in making a enmeshed in the Spanish struggle of the 1930s, the sixtieth difficult movie for a popular audience and despite the continuities anniversary of Franco's victory, which passed on 31 March this year, he demonstrated between fascism and contemporary neo-liberalism, has meant little.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spanish Civil War (1936–39)
    12 CIVIL WAR CASE STUDY 1: THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR (1936–39) ‘A civil war is not a war but a sickness,’ wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. ‘The enemy is within. One fights almost against oneself.’ Yet Spain’s tragedy in 1936 was even greater. It had become enmeshed in the international civil war, which started in earnest with the Bolshevik revolution. From Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 , 2006 The Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 after more than a century of social, economic and political division. Half a million people died in this conflict between 1936 and 1939. As you read through this chapter, consider the following essay questions: Ģ Why did a civil war break out in Spain in 1936? Ģ How significant was the impact of foreign involvement on the outcome of the Spanish Civil War? General Francisco Franco, the Ģ What were the key effects of the Spanish Civil War? leader who took Nationalist forces to victory in the Spanish Civil War. Timeline of events – 1820–1931 1820 The Spanish Army, supported by liberals, overthrows the absolute monarchy and makes Spain a constitutional monarchy in a modernizing revolution 1821 Absolute monarchy is restored to Spain by French forces in an attempt to reinstate the old order 1833 In an attempt to prevent a female succession following the death of King Ferdinand, there is a revolt by ‘Carlists’. The army intervenes to defeat the Carlists, who nevertheless remain a strong conservative force in Spanish politics (see Interesting Facts box) 1833–69 The army’s influence in national politics increases during the ‘rule of the Queens’ 1869–70 Anarchist revolts take place against the state 1870–71 The monarchy is overthrown and the First Republic is established 1871 The army restores a constitutional monarchy 1875–1918 During this period the constitutional monarchy allows for democratic elections.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Birmingham How to Be Universal
    University of Birmingham How to be universal Ginger, Andrew DOI: 10.7765/9781526124753.00007 License: None: All rights reserved Document Version Peer reviewed version Citation for published version (Harvard): Ginger, A 2018, How to be universal. in A Ginger & G Lawless (eds), Spain in the nineteenth century: New essays on experiences of culture and society. Interventions: Rethinking the Nineteenth Century, Manchester University Press, pp. 38-62. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526124753.00007 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal Publisher Rights Statement: Checked for eligibility: 07/02/2019 This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work: Ginger, A (2018) How to be universal. In A. Ginger, & G. Lawless (Eds.), Spain in the nineteenth century: New essays on experiences of culture and society (pp. 38-62). Manchester: Manchester University Press. It can be found at: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526124746/ General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain.
    [Show full text]
  • The Monumentalization of the Spanish Civil War
    Wesleyan University The Honors College How Spain Sees its Past: The Monumentalization of the Spanish Civil War by Lynn Cartwright-Punnett Class of 2007 A thesis submitted to the faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors in History and Iberian Studies Middletown, Connecticut April 2007 Acknowledgments Very special thanks to all the experts who have helped me in the formation of this work: Nathanael Greene, who assigned Homage to Catalonia freshman year and advised me senior year; Carmen Moreno-Nuño and Montserrat Iglesias Santos, who led me to historical memory of the Spanish Civil War; Phillip Wagoner, who introduced me to the concept of lieux de mémoire; and Antonio González, who helped me with Lorca and all things Iberian. Thanks to the Davenport Committee for enabling me to do research over the summer, and to Jaime Lipton, Cuchi Pereyra, Katherine Halper, Emilio Silva, Jesús de Andrés, and Beatriz de las Heras Herrero who helped me while there. Thanks to Erhard Konerding who supplied me with feedback and puns. To Katie Barnett and Meg Adams for going to the NYU conference with me. To CML, because he was willing to be acknowledged. To every member of my family who clipped newspaper articles and sent them to me; even if I didn’t end up using them, they were always appreciated. Thanks to Fran for always being ready to drop everything and help me de-stress. Thanks to Gavin and Judith, whose work on their theses kept me honest.
    [Show full text]
  • David Archibald
    The Spanish Civil War in Cinema David Archibald University of Glasgow Departments of Theatre, Film and Television and Hispanic9 Studies Doctoral Thesis C) [David Archibald] [February 2005] Abstract in I In this thesis I present a case study of the Spanish civil war cinema. examine how this period has been represented in cinema through time, in different countries and in various cinematic forms. I reject the postmodern prognosis that the past is a chaotic mass, made senseof through the subjective narrativisation choices of historians working in the present. On the contrary, I argue that there are referential limits on what histories can be legitimately written about the past. I argue that there are different, often contradictory, representations of the Spanish civil war in cinema which indicates a diversity of uses for the past. But there are also referential limits on what can be legitimately represented cinematically. I argue that the civil war setting will continue to be one which filmmakers turn to as the battle for the future of Spain is partially played out in the cinematically recreated battles of the past. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: History and the Spanish Civil War 8 Chapter Two: History on Film: The Spanish Civil War 44 Chapter Three: For Whom the Bell Tolls: Hollywood 71 and the Spanish Civil War Chapter Four: Re-cycling the Past: Patterns of History in Vacas 105 Chapter Five: No Laughing Matter? Comedy and 131 The Spanish Civil War Chapter Six: Ghosts from the Past: El espinazo del Diablo 165 Chapter Seven: Cinematic Politics: Revolution Revisited in 191 Land and Freedom and Libertarias Chapter Eight: The Search for Truth in 221 Soldados de Salamina Conclusion 240 Filmography 244 Bibliography 249 2 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisors, Mike Gonzalez and Dimitris Eleftheriotis.
    [Show full text]