Historian
Paul Preston is a British historian who has been researching the
Spanish Civil War for more than 30 years. A few years ago he published
an updated version of his book The Spanish Civil War where he describes
the final victory of Franco's troops as "an international war that
happened in Spanish fields, that wasn't decided in Spain but in
the hands of the great powers." Perhaps the novelty of this book
is the idea that "the presence of Italy in Spain wasn't by accident,
as one could consider the German troops, but it must be understood
as a non-formal declaration of war from Italy to the Republican
Government".
As for his ideas on Franco, Preston is quoted as saying that "Franco
wasn't a fascist, but something much worse, as he brought the African
mentality of repression and coldness, and treated the Spanish the
same way as the natives of Morocco".
Paul Preston has been awarded the professorship of the Hispano-Britannic
chair at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. He is the fourth
professor to hold this position. Thanks to this agreement, pupils
at the UCM have received classes by Ian Michel and Edmund Valpy
Fitzgerald (University of Oxford) as well as Alan Dashwood (University
of Cambridge). At the time of writing, Preston has undertaken to
teach two PhD courses. This work will be complemented by a series
of conferences which Paul Preston will give at various Spanish colleges
and universities.
