To my surprise, the book was serialised in one national newspaper- El Mundo β and its arguments reported in others. This was an ominous sign of things to come. I was of course interested in how pro-Republican historians would respond to and critique the book. I got my answer that spring with the publication of En el combate por la historia [ Fighting for History ]. This book was no exception.
There was no attempt to analyse my arguments; I was lambasted for using Francoist sources, as if no other historian have used these sources before.
Most depressingly, there was no interest in considering the book as a work of history; rather he saw it as a weapon to pursue a nefarious political agenda. Foreign commentators often criticise Spaniards for failing to come to terms with the dark history of the Civil War. By this they mean that there is a resistance to see Franco as a genocidal tyrant akin to Hitler and Stalin. This is accompanied by a romanticisation of the Republic and those who resisted Franco. Revolutionary anarchists, socialists and communists, it is averred, in reality fought to defend liberal democracy in July In fact, these ideas have shaped how the Spanish left has seen the civil war since at least the death of Franco in This helps explain why the historiography on this crucial subject has been weak.
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