Selected as the Sunday Times History Book of the Year for 2012, this is a meticulous work of scholarship from the foremost historian of 20th-century Spain.

The culmination of more than a decade of research, 'The Spanish Holocaust' seeks to reflect the intense horrors visited upon Spain during its ferocious civil war, the consequences of which still reverberate bitterly today.

The brutal, murderous persecution of Spaniards between 1936 and 1945 is a truth that should have been told long ago. Paul Preston here offers the first comprehensive picture of what he terms "the Spanish Holocaust": mass extra-judicial murder of some 200,000 victims, cursory military trials, torture, the systematic abuse of women and children, sweeping imprisonment, the horrors of exile. Those culpable for crimes committed on both sides of the Civil War are named; their victims identified.

'The Spanish Holocaust' illuminates one of the darkest, least-known eras of modern European history.

About the Author

SIR PAUL PRESTON CBE is Professor of Contemporary Spanish History at the London School of Economics and was previously a lecturer at the University of Reading and Professor of Modern History at Queen Mary University London. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and holds the Marcel Proust Chair of the European Academy of Yuste. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by universities in Spain and the UK. In 2006, he was awarded the International Ramon Llull Prize by the Catalan Government and, in 2018, the Guernica Peace Prize. Among his many works are Franco: A Biography, Comrades, Doves of War: Four Women of Spain, Juan Carlos, The Spanish Civil War, The Spanish Holocaust, The Last Stalinist, The Last Days of the Spanish Republic and A People Betrayed. In Spain, he was appointed a Comendador de la Orden del Merito Civil in 1986 and awarded, in 2007, the Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Catolica. He lives in London.

Reviews

'A book of extraordinary moral and emotional power, a classic of historical scholarship and a deeply affecting record of man's inhumanity to man.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

'A harrowing and moving account of the immense terror and enormous atrocities, especially perpetrated by General Franco's followers, during and after the Spanish Civil War, meticulously researched and superbly written by an outstanding historian.' Ian Kershaw

'Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Spain and its recent history.... Preston's excellent, spine-chilling narrative explains just how deep Franco's early investment in terror was....this is an invaluable book that does not shrink from even the harshest of truths' Guardian

'Preston's staggeringly detailed powerful and affecting chronicle of the savagery unleashed during the Spanish civil war....is a history of rare moral and emotional power, which alters forever our view of one of the most symbolic conflicts of the last century' Sunday Times, History Book of the Year

Book Information
ISBN 9780006386957
Author Paul Preston
Format Paperback
Page Count 720
Imprint HarperPress
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 530g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 40mm