From Franco to Freedom

From Franco to Freedom
Author: Miguel Angel Ruiz Carnicer
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2018-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782845429

This book brings together recent research by a group of specialists in history and sociology to provide a new reading of the late Franco dictatorship, especially in relation to its political culture. The authors focus on the election of local, trade union and national representatives, the work of the first Spanish sociologists, the struggle over administrative reform, the role of the media and the intellectuals, as well as the evolution of the dictatorships political class and its response to the regimes decline. Not only are the politics of the late dictatorship scrutinised, but also the mechanisms that were deployed to control the fast-changing society of the 1960s and 1970s. In examining the late Franco period, the contributors do not believe that it contained the seeds of Spains later democratisation, but maintain that certain sectorial regime initiatives -- electoral and political changes, an evolving discourse and an interest in political processes outside Spain -- made many Spaniards aware of the dictatorships contradictions and limitations, thereby encouraging its subsequent political and social evolution. This transformation is compared with the latter stages of the parallel dictatorship in Portugal. The great majority of Spaniards felt that the embrace of democratic freedoms and integration into the European Community was the only way forward during the Transition. But the shift from dictatorship to democracy from the 1960s onwards in Spain needs to be understood in relation to the multitude of political and social changes that took place -- despite the opposition of Franco and the bunker mentality of the regime. These changes manifested in a complex interaction between internal and external factors, which eventually resulted in the transformation of Spanish society itself.

Madrid's Forgotten Avant-Garde

Madrid's Forgotten Avant-Garde
Author: Silvina Schammah Gesser
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1836241909

This book explores the role played by artists and intellectuals who constructed and disseminated various competing images of national identity which polarized Spanish society prior to the Civil War. The convergence of modern and essentialist discourses and practices, especially in literature and poetry, in what is conventionally called in Spanish letters "The Generation of '27", created fissures between competing views of aesthetics and ideology that cut across political affiliation. Silvina Schammah exposes the paradoxes facing Madrid's cultural vanguards, as they were torn by their ambition for universality, cosmopolitanism and transcendence on the one hand and by the centripetal forces of nationalistic ideologies on the other. Taking upon themselves roles to become the disseminators and populizers of radical positions and world-views first elaborated and conducted by the young urban intelligentsia, their proposed aim of incorporating diverse identities embedded in different cultural constructions and discourse was to have very real and tragic consequences as political and intellectual lines polarized in the years prior to the Spanish Civil War.

The Road to Anarchy

The Road to Anarchy
Author: Ángel Herrerín
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2020-07-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782846832

The Road to Anarchy is the result of an exhaustive investigation into the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) during the democratic years of the Second Republic. By analysing the course of the CNT in terms of its role in the labour conflict and the internal life and approach of the organisation (its ideology, its practice, its internal conflicts, the role of the individual and the weight of history) this book dismantles the long-held view that the CNT orchestrated three insurrections against the Republic. Key is analysis not only of the violence of the anarchists, but also that of the state. Two crucial themes emerge: the political struggle within the organisation, and its involvement in the revolution of October 1934 and in the events of the spring of 1936. Ángel Herrerín investigates the controversial relations of the anarchists with other political formations, such as the republicans, the socialists, Communists and Catalans, with whom the anarchists fought on the republican side during the Civil War. Special attention is paid to the crucial relationship with the socialist trade unions, the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), as this evolved from one of competition for trade-union dominance to the acceptance of anarcho-syndicalist practices by the socialists and collaboration between the two organisations. The book is based on wide-ranging archival research, including the Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, the National Historical Archive in Spain, the Foreign Office Archives in France and other national archives related to the repression of the CNT, such as those of the Army and Civil Guard in Spain. The study of the CNT in this timeframe is long overdue; the last similar study was undertaken by the US Democratic Congressman John Brademas in the 1950s, a renowned scholar of Spains social revolution.

The World in Paint

The World in Paint
Author: David Peters Corbett
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2004
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780719069659

This anonymous manuscript play has long been the subject of scholarly dispute regarding its relationship with Shakespeare's Richard II. This edition, which thoroughly re-examines the text, situates the play within its historical and political context, relating it to the genre of chronicle drama to which it belongs. The manuscript is of particular interest in that it appears to have been used in the playhouse over a considerable period of time and contains what seems to be evidence of the theatre practice of the time. The play is also of special interest for its skilful and original handling of source material which may well have influenced Shakespeare's Richard II. The extensive appendices drawn from Holinshed, Grafton and Stow provide the reader with the opportunity to investigate the manner in which the dramatist has shaped the material. The editors argue for the play's stage-worthiness and dramatic complexity, suggesting that its range both of dramatic tone and social inclusiveness indicate the work of a dramatist of considerable skill and subtlety, equal or superior to the Shakespeare of the Henry VI plays.

Willa Cather Remembered

Willa Cather Remembered
Author: L. Brent Bohlke
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780803223950

The Willa Cather whom friends and acquaintances knew is not well known to contemporary readers. Bourgeois and midwestern, she was not a member of the Social Registerøsociety like Edith Wharton nor of the avant-garde or expatriate circles, as was Gertrude Stein, nor was she a member of the "lost generation" of the younger F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. In the 1920s Cather turned fifty and was intent on fully developing her talent, writing six major novels during that decade. Willa Cather Remembered comprises reminiscences of the author written between the 1920s and 1980s by people ranging from close friends to journalistic observers and acquaintances. The materials are drawn from newspapers and journals, portions of books, and a few previously unpublished personal letters or reflections. Many of the writers knew Cather for many years; others knew her at a particular time and place, and a few only saw her in passing. Some are celebrities, such as Truman Capote; others are lesser-known but important names, such as Henry Seidel Canby, editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, and Fanny Butcher, editor of the Chicago Tribune book section. A few of the commentators, though they may have respected Cather in one way or another, are highly critical of her; others are unabashed admirers. All, however, present Cather as a memorable character with an unmistakable presence. These recollections by people who knew Cather throughout the course of her professional life will acquaint readers with the woman who incited one classmate at the University of Nebraska to say, "I don't know if I like Willie, but she's never dull."

Historical Reenactment

Historical Reenactment
Author: Mario Carretero
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2022-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1800735413

Long dismissed as the domain of hobbyists and obsessives, historical reenactment—the dramatization of past events using costumed actors and historical props—has only in recent years attracted serious attention from scholars. Drawing on examples from around the world, Historical Reenactment offers a fascinating, interdisciplinary exploration of this cultural phenomenon. With particular attention to reenactment’s social and pedagogical dimensions, it develops a robust definition of what the practice constitutes, considers what methodological approaches are most appropriate, and places it alongside museums and memorial sites as an object of analysis.

The World of Tiers: Volume One

The World of Tiers: Volume One
Author: Philip Jose Farmer
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 468
Release: 1996-10-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780312857615

The novels of the author's World of Tiers series are presented in an anthology that takes the reader on a universe-hopping adventure.