Book description
The leading historian on the Spanish Civil War reveals the truth about
one of the most horrifying events of the twentieth century - the
destruction of Guernica.
Guernica, a quiet market town in the Basque region of northern Spain. On
Monday 26 April 1937, as the Spanish Civil War raged, the market square
was busy with farmers and townspeople. Just before five o'clock in the
afternoon the sky darkened as the Luftwaffe swarmed overhead and began
an unrelentingly vicious assault, the first ever on an undefended
civilian target in Europe.
The savage attack on Guernica marked the birth of a horrific new kind of
warfare. In this searing account of the tragedy, Paul Preston, the
foremost historian of 20th century Spain, tells the whole story of the
attack, from Franco's tactics to how events unfolded on the day and how
the world responded.
Published to tie in with the 75th anniversary of the bombing this short
ebook is a deeply moving account of what happened on that day in
Guernica. Praise for 'The Spanish Holocaust':
'Exhaustively researched and masterfully written… the result is 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
'As documented by Preston in this moving, brilliantly rendered account,
Spain was not only the scene-setter for World War Two, but also the
proving ground for the campaigns of mass-murder that became its ghastly
hallmark. A deeply important, powerful work of history.' Jon Lee Anderson
'Preston's study is history as a public good. A substitute for the truth
and reconciliation process that has not taken place in Spain.' Independent
'An angry, scholarly revision of the civil war and the subsequent years
of Franco's dictatorship.' Daily Telegraph Paul Preston CBE is
Príncipe de Asturias Professor of Contemporary Spanish History and
Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre of Contemporary Spanish Studies at
LSE. He was awarded the International Ramon Llull Prize by the Catalan
Government. Among his works are 'The Triumph of Democracy in Spain'
(1986), 'Franco: A Biography' (1993), 'A Concise History of the Spanish
Civil War' (1996), 'Comrades' (1999), 'Doves of War: Four Women in
Spain' (2002), 'Juan Carlos' (2004) and 'The Spanish Civil War' (2006)
and 'The Spanish Holocaust' (2012). He was decorated by Spanish King
Juan Carlos a 'Comendador de la Orden de Mérito Civil' and in 2007, the
'Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica'.
