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Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Anti-Semitism in Franco’s Spain
From the preeminent historian of 20th century Spain Paul Preston, Architects of Terror is a new history of how paranoia, conspiracy and anti-Semitism was used to justify the military coup of 1936 and enabled the construction of a dictatorship built on violence and persecution.
It is the previously untold story of how antisemitic beliefs were weaponised to justify and propagate the Franco overthrow of liberal Spain.
The coup was launched to overturn the educational and social reforms of the democratic Second Republic and to combat its cultural challenges to the established order. The consequent civil war was fought in the interests of the landowners, industrialists, bankers, clerics and army officers whose privileges were threatened. In a country with a tiny minority of Jews, fewer than 6,000 in 1936, and a similar number of Freemasons, a central justification for the civil war that took the lives of around 500,000 Spaniards was the alleged scheme for world domination by the so-called Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik Conspiracy. Francisco Franco and his inner circle were ardent believers in, and spread, both the idea of this invented conspiracy and the belief that Jews and Freemasons must be annihilated.
Architects of Terror is the story of how fake news, mendacity, corruption, and nostalgia for lost empire were the engines for violence. The book takes us through the key individuals who propagated the myth of the Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik Conspiracy and to the central figures who implemented the horrors that it justified. Of the many views these actors shared were their unanimous conviction of the factual veracity of the notorious fabrication about the alleged global domination of the Jews, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and of the idea that Freemasonry was responsible for Spain’s loss of empire.
This is a history that reverberates in our own political moment.
It is the previously untold story of how antisemitic beliefs were weaponised to justify and propagate the Franco overthrow of liberal Spain.
The coup was launched to overturn the educational and social reforms of the democratic Second Republic and to combat its cultural challenges to the established order. The consequent civil war was fought in the interests of the landowners, industrialists, bankers, clerics and army officers whose privileges were threatened. In a country with a tiny minority of Jews, fewer than 6,000 in 1936, and a similar number of Freemasons, a central justification for the civil war that took the lives of around 500,000 Spaniards was the alleged scheme for world domination by the so-called Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik Conspiracy. Francisco Franco and his inner circle were ardent believers in, and spread, both the idea of this invented conspiracy and the belief that Jews and Freemasons must be annihilated.
Architects of Terror is the story of how fake news, mendacity, corruption, and nostalgia for lost empire were the engines for violence. The book takes us through the key individuals who propagated the myth of the Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik Conspiracy and to the central figures who implemented the horrors that it justified. Of the many views these actors shared were their unanimous conviction of the factual veracity of the notorious fabrication about the alleged global domination of the Jews, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and of the idea that Freemasonry was responsible for Spain’s loss of empire.
This is a history that reverberates in our own political moment.
464 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2023
42 people are currently reading
498 people want to read
About the author
Paul Preston
122 books259 followersPaul Preston, author of Franco and Juan Carlos, holds the Príncipe de Asturias Chair of Contemporary Spanish History at the London School of Economics. He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
September 27, 2022
Llibre indispensable per situar els termes en què es va disputar la guerra civil espanyola. Paul Preston fa una declaració de principis en el primer capítol del llibre "Fake News y Guerra Civil" en el que deixa clar que l'orientació ideològica del Règim es basa en l'antisemtisme, contra la masoneria i un ampli espectre de demòcrates, socialistes i anarquistes que cabien tots dins del mot "comunisme". El darrer capítol del llibre "La guerra interminable", l'autor rastreja aquella idees bàsiques en l'Espanya de la democràcia, en una Espanya que no ha fet net, que ha deixat arreu les llavors d'aquell temps.
Enmig d'ambdós capítols, ens trobem una enorme contribució al coneixement del règim franquista a través de l'estudi detallat de sis persones que esdevenen clau per revelar les bases ideològiques del Règim. Preston titula el seu llibre "Arquitectes del terror" i aquest és un títol exacte per tal de descriure les persones que s'hi analitzen. El primer és "el policia", un esperpèntic Julián Mauricio Carlavilla, després "el sacerdot", Joan Tusquets, el tercer, "el poeta", José M. Pemán, el quart, "el missatger", l'aristòcrata Gonzalo de Aguilera i els dos darrers, dos militars, el primer "l'assassí del nord", el general Emilio Mola i el darrer personatge analitzat "el psicòpata del sud", el general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano.
Són nombroses les citacions literals que l'autor treu a la llum, totes indispensables per entendre, de primera ma, el terror que indica en el títol del seu llibre. Entre moltíssimes d'imprescindibles, escullo les següents:
"Los incendios de Irún, de Guernica, de Lequeitio, de Málaga o de Baena, son como quema de rastrojos para dejar abonada la tierra de la cosecha nueva. Vamos a tener, españoles, después del paso de este vendaval arrasador, tierra lisa y llana para llenarla alegremente de piedras imperiales" (El poeta José M. Pemán, pàg. 155).
"Debemos destruir este engendro de escuelas rojas que la sediciente República creó para enseñar a los esclavos a rebelarse. Basta con que las masas sepan leer lo justo para entender órdenes. Debemos restaurar la autoridad de la Iglesia. Los esclavos la necesitan para que les enseñe a portarse como es debido" (El terratinent i aristòcrata, Gonzalo de Aguilera, pàg. 209).
"Nuestros valientes Legionarios y Regulares han enseñado a los rojos cobardes lo que significa ser hombre de verdad. Y, de paso, a sus mujeres también. Después de todo, estas comunistas y anarquista se lo merecen, ¿no han predicado el amor libre? Ahora por lo menos sabrán lo que son hombres de verdad y no milicianos maricones. No se van a librar por mucho que forcejeen y pataleen" (El general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, pàg. 315).
Enmig d'ambdós capítols, ens trobem una enorme contribució al coneixement del règim franquista a través de l'estudi detallat de sis persones que esdevenen clau per revelar les bases ideològiques del Règim. Preston titula el seu llibre "Arquitectes del terror" i aquest és un títol exacte per tal de descriure les persones que s'hi analitzen. El primer és "el policia", un esperpèntic Julián Mauricio Carlavilla, després "el sacerdot", Joan Tusquets, el tercer, "el poeta", José M. Pemán, el quart, "el missatger", l'aristòcrata Gonzalo de Aguilera i els dos darrers, dos militars, el primer "l'assassí del nord", el general Emilio Mola i el darrer personatge analitzat "el psicòpata del sud", el general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano.
Són nombroses les citacions literals que l'autor treu a la llum, totes indispensables per entendre, de primera ma, el terror que indica en el títol del seu llibre. Entre moltíssimes d'imprescindibles, escullo les següents:
"Los incendios de Irún, de Guernica, de Lequeitio, de Málaga o de Baena, son como quema de rastrojos para dejar abonada la tierra de la cosecha nueva. Vamos a tener, españoles, después del paso de este vendaval arrasador, tierra lisa y llana para llenarla alegremente de piedras imperiales" (El poeta José M. Pemán, pàg. 155).
"Debemos destruir este engendro de escuelas rojas que la sediciente República creó para enseñar a los esclavos a rebelarse. Basta con que las masas sepan leer lo justo para entender órdenes. Debemos restaurar la autoridad de la Iglesia. Los esclavos la necesitan para que les enseñe a portarse como es debido" (El terratinent i aristòcrata, Gonzalo de Aguilera, pàg. 209).
"Nuestros valientes Legionarios y Regulares han enseñado a los rojos cobardes lo que significa ser hombre de verdad. Y, de paso, a sus mujeres también. Después de todo, estas comunistas y anarquista se lo merecen, ¿no han predicado el amor libre? Ahora por lo menos sabrán lo que son hombres de verdad y no milicianos maricones. No se van a librar por mucho que forcejeen y pataleen" (El general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, pàg. 315).
January 14, 2026
Architects of Terror bears some resemblance to Richard Evans’ outstanding Hitler’s People: Faces of the Third Reich. It bundles sketches of notable fascists who contributed to the eventual victory of the Fascist forces ultimately under the command of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.
What all of these characters have in common is a ferocious hatred for the so-called Jewish-Freemason-Marxist cabal said to at the heart of the malaise of early 20th Century Spain. You have a policeman, a poet, a churchman, a messenger and soldier, and a couple of psychopathic generals.
The final chapter brings the Caudillo — as Generalissimo Franco is known — into focus, but the book stays away from a complete sketch of Franco’s antisemitism.
I knew little of this period of Spanish history so I was curious about the background of the Civil War. I knew that Hitler and Mussolini supported the Fascist/Nationalist side, and I had an idea that Stalin supported the Republican forces.
Spain’s monarchy in the 1920’s was corrupt and in disarray. It was superceded by a coup. The Spanish Civil War began somewhat after the military dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera collapsed and a second Republican state took its place.
Spain was a deeply unequal society. In the south, massive estates called latifundios were owned by a tiny group of wealthy aristocrats, while millions of peasants lived in near-starvation. In the cities, industrial workers faced miserable conditions
The Second Republic had stripped the powerful Catholic Church of its control over the schools and it legalized divorce.
The War itself began in Africa with soldiers embroiled in a bloody and very dirty colonial conflict led by a conspiracy of conservative officers of which one was Francisco Franco. The generals brought their hatred of the Republicans back with them to Spain.
Antisemitism was not a prime mover in the war — unlike Hitler’s Third Reich which very much was about destruction of the Jews.
Two of the conspiring generals featured in this book, Emilio Mola in the north and Gonzalo Queipo de Llano in the south were war criminals who slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers. They were corrupt. They were insecure. And ultimately they were overshadowed by Franco who solidified his position with Hitler and Mussolini.
These last few sketches are very interesting, although not so much for the figures’ antisemitism. The generals are compelling for other reasons — none of them good.
As I finished the book, having visited Spain a couple of times I was curious if the country had come to terms with its fascist past.
Spain has never had a truth and reconciliation process like South Africa or Chile. After Franco died in the 1970’s it preferred to let sleeping dogs lie.
More recently there has been some legislation which had least allows for official recovery of the dead in mass graves, and students in schools to some degree learn about the depredations of the war in school.
But much is still disputed in the history books.
A small side note: General Queipo acquired/stole/was gifted a huge estate near Seville during his reign of terror. I looked it up: the Spanish state is STILL trying recover that property.
What all of these characters have in common is a ferocious hatred for the so-called Jewish-Freemason-Marxist cabal said to at the heart of the malaise of early 20th Century Spain. You have a policeman, a poet, a churchman, a messenger and soldier, and a couple of psychopathic generals.
The final chapter brings the Caudillo — as Generalissimo Franco is known — into focus, but the book stays away from a complete sketch of Franco’s antisemitism.
I knew little of this period of Spanish history so I was curious about the background of the Civil War. I knew that Hitler and Mussolini supported the Fascist/Nationalist side, and I had an idea that Stalin supported the Republican forces.
Spain’s monarchy in the 1920’s was corrupt and in disarray. It was superceded by a coup. The Spanish Civil War began somewhat after the military dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera collapsed and a second Republican state took its place.
Spain was a deeply unequal society. In the south, massive estates called latifundios were owned by a tiny group of wealthy aristocrats, while millions of peasants lived in near-starvation. In the cities, industrial workers faced miserable conditions
The Second Republic had stripped the powerful Catholic Church of its control over the schools and it legalized divorce.
The War itself began in Africa with soldiers embroiled in a bloody and very dirty colonial conflict led by a conspiracy of conservative officers of which one was Francisco Franco. The generals brought their hatred of the Republicans back with them to Spain.
Antisemitism was not a prime mover in the war — unlike Hitler’s Third Reich which very much was about destruction of the Jews.
Two of the conspiring generals featured in this book, Emilio Mola in the north and Gonzalo Queipo de Llano in the south were war criminals who slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers. They were corrupt. They were insecure. And ultimately they were overshadowed by Franco who solidified his position with Hitler and Mussolini.
These last few sketches are very interesting, although not so much for the figures’ antisemitism. The generals are compelling for other reasons — none of them good.
As I finished the book, having visited Spain a couple of times I was curious if the country had come to terms with its fascist past.
Spain has never had a truth and reconciliation process like South Africa or Chile. After Franco died in the 1970’s it preferred to let sleeping dogs lie.
More recently there has been some legislation which had least allows for official recovery of the dead in mass graves, and students in schools to some degree learn about the depredations of the war in school.
But much is still disputed in the history books.
A small side note: General Queipo acquired/stole/was gifted a huge estate near Seville during his reign of terror. I looked it up: the Spanish state is STILL trying recover that property.
August 29, 2022
Preston retrata a varios personajes claves para cimentar la ideología franquista, obsesionada por el «contubernio judeomasónico», y para ejecutar los crímenes que ésta exigía. Salvo Queipo de Llano y Mola, desconocía al resto de personajes, pero todos resultan igual de espeluznantes. El perfil de cada uno de ellos puede resultar somero, porque Preston se centra en sus motivaciones ideológicas. Desde esta perspectiva, los protagonistas están perfectamente escogidos: los creadores de bulos, los que se encargaron de propagarlos y los que los usaron para justificar sus acciones. En el último capítulo, Preston enlaza aquel ambiente de mentiras, exageraciones, racismo y polarización con el presente español. Aunque solo dedica un capítulo a los años posteriores a la dictadura y menciona apenas un par de ejemplos actuales, deja esa semilla para la reflexión sobre una actualidad en la que todavía se usan términos de la retórica de los años 30.
December 8, 2021
N'he llegit la traducció al català de Montserrat Pérez.
Amb el suport d'una consistent documentació i una bibliografia pertinent com ja ens té acostumats l'historiador Paul Preston, el llibre s'enceta amb les Fake news que aplanaren el camí de la rebel. lió i justificaren la crueltat de la repressió en la guerra i la postguerra.
Aquestes fake news, "la guerra interminable contra el «contubernio» es mantenen al llarg del temps i arriben fins als nostres dies. D'aquest aspecte se n'ocupa el capítol final del llibre.
Els arquitectes del terror conformen sis capítols individualitzats que, encapçalts pel nom i la qualitat de cadascun dels personatges, conformen la planificació i l'execució d'una obra tèrbola i execrable.
Els arquitectes/capítols :
El policia. Mauricio Carlavilla.
El capellà. Joan Tusquets.
El poeta. José María Pemán.
El missatger. Gonzalo de Aguinera.
L'assassí del nord. Emilio Mola.
El psicópata del sud. Gonzalo Queipo de Llano.
Quan escric aquestes línies penso en la felicitació de nadal penjada a Twitter per una família americana que ostentosament commemora l'efemèride envoltada d'armes. "Pare Noel, si us plau, porta munició" És el desig no solament d'un pare de família, ho és també d'un càrrec públic, un congressista republicà.
Astorament és el que queda.
Astorament, repulsió, fàstic en definitiva, quan llegim dels arquitectes del terror.
Amb el suport d'una consistent documentació i una bibliografia pertinent com ja ens té acostumats l'historiador Paul Preston, el llibre s'enceta amb les Fake news que aplanaren el camí de la rebel. lió i justificaren la crueltat de la repressió en la guerra i la postguerra.
Aquestes fake news, "la guerra interminable contra el «contubernio» es mantenen al llarg del temps i arriben fins als nostres dies. D'aquest aspecte se n'ocupa el capítol final del llibre.
Els arquitectes del terror conformen sis capítols individualitzats que, encapçalts pel nom i la qualitat de cadascun dels personatges, conformen la planificació i l'execució d'una obra tèrbola i execrable.
Els arquitectes/capítols :
El policia. Mauricio Carlavilla.
El capellà. Joan Tusquets.
El poeta. José María Pemán.
El missatger. Gonzalo de Aguinera.
L'assassí del nord. Emilio Mola.
El psicópata del sud. Gonzalo Queipo de Llano.
Quan escric aquestes línies penso en la felicitació de nadal penjada a Twitter per una família americana que ostentosament commemora l'efemèride envoltada d'armes. "Pare Noel, si us plau, porta munició" És el desig no solament d'un pare de família, ho és també d'un càrrec públic, un congressista republicà.
Astorament és el que queda.
Astorament, repulsió, fàstic en definitiva, quan llegim dels arquitectes del terror.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2026
Takes the facts too seriously without weaving a narrative or any sense of the big picture.
April 29, 2024
Aside from the research and light he sheds on the times under study – in this case the roots, battles and aftermath of the Spanish Civil War - what makes a Paul Preston book unique is his very particular, passionate narrative voice.
He’s there with you on every page, in his incredulity at what he considers the lunacy and evil of his chosen subjects – six potted biographies of key figures on the Nationalist right – and their acts. His prose is driven forwards by a series of conversations with his subjects where he rebuts them and contradicts them and answers them as though a ghost of one of their many victims, or an avenging angel. There are dark as night quips and sardonic asides, as though from behind his upraised hand, and straight-ahead, fact-based refutations which make a mockery of these often pompous, hypocritical figures’ pronouncements, beliefs and writings.
Franco very much believed in the enemy within Spain, and not just what he saw as the secret Jewish, Anarchist, Masonic and whatever-else factions. When the war started, for the right it became a crusade to eradicate the poison of not just enemy soldiers but ideas they were fighting for. And this meant not stopping at soldiers. It is that inhumanism, out of all much vileness witnessed in the book, which for me was most striking, the vision that many (perhaps we could say on both sides) had of their fellow countrymen as a kind of virus in the body of Spain which needed to be removed for the country to be spiritually, and even physically, clean. Hitler and the Nazi’s Final Solution casts its sad shadow alongside us as we read.
Preston sees himself primarily as a biographer, telling history through the stories of the people who lived it. Here he chooses six grimly fascinating figures and part of the interest in the book is the morbo the reader feels with each passing page. There are poets and priests and soldiers here, all converted to the idea of them and us, pure and foul, valuable and worthless. What Preston shows without doubt – and of course here come the parallels with our modern world of conspiracies and theories and post-truth – is that the ideology of the right was largely built upon falsehoods believed as truth and taken in faith.
Perhaps the modern world is a reaction to the twentieth century’s sycophantic belief in ‘ideas’. But is it only the extremes of society who believe we are controlled by secret societies, or that there are hidden agendas which we are not privy to but servants of? Freemasonry is alive and well in 2024, as is antisemitism, paranoia, conspiracies, socialism, communism and fascism. What this book is about to me is the power of ideas to motivate humans to act in the most inhuman ways; the power of demonstrably false suppositions to be converted into truth which resonates and rouses to this day.
Ideas are drivers of action. Actions are what we are. And here lies horror in action.
He’s there with you on every page, in his incredulity at what he considers the lunacy and evil of his chosen subjects – six potted biographies of key figures on the Nationalist right – and their acts. His prose is driven forwards by a series of conversations with his subjects where he rebuts them and contradicts them and answers them as though a ghost of one of their many victims, or an avenging angel. There are dark as night quips and sardonic asides, as though from behind his upraised hand, and straight-ahead, fact-based refutations which make a mockery of these often pompous, hypocritical figures’ pronouncements, beliefs and writings.
Franco very much believed in the enemy within Spain, and not just what he saw as the secret Jewish, Anarchist, Masonic and whatever-else factions. When the war started, for the right it became a crusade to eradicate the poison of not just enemy soldiers but ideas they were fighting for. And this meant not stopping at soldiers. It is that inhumanism, out of all much vileness witnessed in the book, which for me was most striking, the vision that many (perhaps we could say on both sides) had of their fellow countrymen as a kind of virus in the body of Spain which needed to be removed for the country to be spiritually, and even physically, clean. Hitler and the Nazi’s Final Solution casts its sad shadow alongside us as we read.
Preston sees himself primarily as a biographer, telling history through the stories of the people who lived it. Here he chooses six grimly fascinating figures and part of the interest in the book is the morbo the reader feels with each passing page. There are poets and priests and soldiers here, all converted to the idea of them and us, pure and foul, valuable and worthless. What Preston shows without doubt – and of course here come the parallels with our modern world of conspiracies and theories and post-truth – is that the ideology of the right was largely built upon falsehoods believed as truth and taken in faith.
Perhaps the modern world is a reaction to the twentieth century’s sycophantic belief in ‘ideas’. But is it only the extremes of society who believe we are controlled by secret societies, or that there are hidden agendas which we are not privy to but servants of? Freemasonry is alive and well in 2024, as is antisemitism, paranoia, conspiracies, socialism, communism and fascism. What this book is about to me is the power of ideas to motivate humans to act in the most inhuman ways; the power of demonstrably false suppositions to be converted into truth which resonates and rouses to this day.
Ideas are drivers of action. Actions are what we are. And here lies horror in action.
January 14, 2026
The Architects of Terror :
Carlavilla, Father Juan Tusquets, José Maria Pemán, Gonzalo de Aguilera, Emilio Mola, and Gonzalo Queipo de Llano all seeded and nurtured the narrative of a ‘Jewish-Freemason-Bolshevik’ conspiracy against Spain to fuel a civil war; the truth being that the rebels feared the reforms of the Republic and threats to their privilege and traditional role.
Preston lays bare the rabid brutalization of the humanity of each one infected by the paranoia of their minds.
"Carlavilla describes urban society as a jungle in which there lurk, not ferocious animals, but perverts. He concludes that, if a son is corrupted, 'Better dead !' you will cry in desperation ! Yes, better dead. Better devoured by a wild animal. Better for him, better for you and better for God'."
"I am in love with death. And death is the most disdainful and ungrateful lover. When she realizes that she is desired, that she is idolized, that she is truly loved, she flees, she escapes, she deserts."
_Father Tusquets
" ...Tusquets had assiduously compiled lists of Jews and Freemasons partly based on information provided by a network of what he called 'my faithful and daring informers'."
Peman :
"Calling for a return of Spanish greatness through an authoritarian monarchy, one of his slogans was 'Let us vote so that one day voting will no longer be necessary.' " That line slammed me hard... sounded too loudly & too incredibly close.
" 'This is the moment to reflect on the total uselessness of this [democratic] system.' The systems defect in his eyes was that, despite having won this time, in the next elections the right could lose. "
_Peman 'the Poet'
Peman :
"... he extolled the Italian Fascist regime for its values of 'authority, obedience, hierarchy, and discipline.'"
"...we are fighting an idea. The idea is in the brain, and to kill it we have to kill the man. We must kill everyone who has that 'red' idea."
"We've got to kill and kill and kill, you understand..."
_Aguilera 'the Messenger '
"Hell is too good for the Reds . I'd like to impale every one and see them wriggling on poles like butterflies..."
_Aguilera
"It is necessary to spread terror. We have to create the impression of mastery eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do."
_Mola the 'Killer in the North'
Queipo 'the Psychopath in the South' :
"... he stated, I authorize you to kill like dogs, those who put pressure on you and I will take full responsibility for this and you will incur none."
Queipo:
"He declared, 'Our brave Legionaries and Regulares have shown the red cowards and their wives too what it means to be a real man. These communist and anarchist women deserve it. After all they have made themselves fair game by practising free love. And now they will at least have known real men, and not queer militiamen. Kicking their legs about and struggling won't save them.' "
"The Victory would be wasted if we did not stay on the alert and maintain the concerns of the heroic days, if we left eternal dissidents, the embittered, the egoists, the defenders of liberal economics free to act … Let us have no illusions: we cannot extinguish in one day the Jewish spirit that facilitated the alliance of big capital with Marxism, that knows all about deals with the anti-Spanish revolution. That spirit still flutters in many hearts."
_Franco (after his 1939 Victory Parade)
*Please allow me to add that those on the Left (the Republicans) were certainly not angels in Spain as anywhere in our world; they had caused their fair share of blood to run in the streets , and much suffering for countless souls during these times. Any 'God-less' ideology that places no value on ones humanity, no respect for a human life - for either extreme - allows for the mass destruction of every semblance of civil society and certainly a - never to be in the least justified - slaughter of innocents for the sake of their 'worthy' cause. This reader can not in good conscience support either the Left or the Right and hope to remain the least bit 'soft' in this world of ours. But Preston opens wide his reader's eyes and mind here to the ugliness of the far Right in Spain.
Speak history, in that voice one might 'feel' . Draw near, speak 'loudly and incredibly close'. Why ? It's imperative we understand.
Carlavilla, Father Juan Tusquets, José Maria Pemán, Gonzalo de Aguilera, Emilio Mola, and Gonzalo Queipo de Llano all seeded and nurtured the narrative of a ‘Jewish-Freemason-Bolshevik’ conspiracy against Spain to fuel a civil war; the truth being that the rebels feared the reforms of the Republic and threats to their privilege and traditional role.
Preston lays bare the rabid brutalization of the humanity of each one infected by the paranoia of their minds.
"Carlavilla describes urban society as a jungle in which there lurk, not ferocious animals, but perverts. He concludes that, if a son is corrupted, 'Better dead !' you will cry in desperation ! Yes, better dead. Better devoured by a wild animal. Better for him, better for you and better for God'."
"I am in love with death. And death is the most disdainful and ungrateful lover. When she realizes that she is desired, that she is idolized, that she is truly loved, she flees, she escapes, she deserts."
_Father Tusquets
" ...Tusquets had assiduously compiled lists of Jews and Freemasons partly based on information provided by a network of what he called 'my faithful and daring informers'."
Peman :
"Calling for a return of Spanish greatness through an authoritarian monarchy, one of his slogans was 'Let us vote so that one day voting will no longer be necessary.' " That line slammed me hard... sounded too loudly & too incredibly close.
" 'This is the moment to reflect on the total uselessness of this [democratic] system.' The systems defect in his eyes was that, despite having won this time, in the next elections the right could lose. "
_Peman 'the Poet'
Peman :
"... he extolled the Italian Fascist regime for its values of 'authority, obedience, hierarchy, and discipline.'"
"...we are fighting an idea. The idea is in the brain, and to kill it we have to kill the man. We must kill everyone who has that 'red' idea."
"We've got to kill and kill and kill, you understand..."
_Aguilera 'the Messenger '
"Hell is too good for the Reds . I'd like to impale every one and see them wriggling on poles like butterflies..."
_Aguilera
"It is necessary to spread terror. We have to create the impression of mastery eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do."
_Mola the 'Killer in the North'
Queipo 'the Psychopath in the South' :
"... he stated, I authorize you to kill like dogs, those who put pressure on you and I will take full responsibility for this and you will incur none."
Queipo:
"He declared, 'Our brave Legionaries and Regulares have shown the red cowards and their wives too what it means to be a real man. These communist and anarchist women deserve it. After all they have made themselves fair game by practising free love. And now they will at least have known real men, and not queer militiamen. Kicking their legs about and struggling won't save them.' "
"The Victory would be wasted if we did not stay on the alert and maintain the concerns of the heroic days, if we left eternal dissidents, the embittered, the egoists, the defenders of liberal economics free to act … Let us have no illusions: we cannot extinguish in one day the Jewish spirit that facilitated the alliance of big capital with Marxism, that knows all about deals with the anti-Spanish revolution. That spirit still flutters in many hearts."
_Franco (after his 1939 Victory Parade)
*Please allow me to add that those on the Left (the Republicans) were certainly not angels in Spain as anywhere in our world; they had caused their fair share of blood to run in the streets , and much suffering for countless souls during these times. Any 'God-less' ideology that places no value on ones humanity, no respect for a human life - for either extreme - allows for the mass destruction of every semblance of civil society and certainly a - never to be in the least justified - slaughter of innocents for the sake of their 'worthy' cause. This reader can not in good conscience support either the Left or the Right and hope to remain the least bit 'soft' in this world of ours. But Preston opens wide his reader's eyes and mind here to the ugliness of the far Right in Spain.
Speak history, in that voice one might 'feel' . Draw near, speak 'loudly and incredibly close'. Why ? It's imperative we understand.
Read
December 26, 2025So I went to Spain over Christmas. Primarily because I was missing the Australian heat and desperately needed some sun because apparently Northern Europe doesn't have any in the winter? I thought that it was only appropriate to read up on the country's history while I was there and this one had been on my shelf for a very long time. In retrospect, this probably wasn't the best introduction to Spanish history. That's my fault though, not the author's.
That said this book was really good. I've studied and written on both political disinformation and contemporary far-right movements and so this topic wasn't entirely foreign to me except in terms of the Spanish context and so the primary utility I found was as a point of comparison with current day conspiracist thought and far-right ideology. The book is a mix of short biographical chapters on major propagandists and military figures of the horrible soup of the Spanish extreme-right during the civil war and subsequent Franco regime. I did find that the biographical nature of the book, especially regarding the military folks, pulled against the main topics being addressed, requiring long digressions into the military manoeuvres of the war and the lurid details of the lives of Spain's fascists. Regardless, I found it very useful and it helped me think a lot about how extreme-right conspiracism, anti-communism, and anti-semitism have shifted over time.
Firstly, the absolute, feverish, paranoid anti-semitism literally never changes. As much as far-right movements shift and mould their message to the current day, the anti-semitism is a near constant.
I also found very interesting the sections talking about the way in which Marxism is construed as foreign or Anti-Spanish. This obviously has great overlap with the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy theories prominent in the Third Reich. It's always interesting to me how fascist movements attempt to rewrite the origins of Marxist though as something fundamentally non-Western. It's a discourse that get's replicated today in the supposed Marxist-Postmodern alliance that many of the hard-right believe is destroying "Western Culture". It probably doesn't need pointing out that both Marxism, a modernist, industrial philosophy deeply rooted within classical political economy and post-modernism, a reaction to Enlightenment philosophy, by a group of largely French philosophers are both (checking my map) deeply Western. Furthermore, I found the sections on the obsession with Jewish, Marxist, Secular 'infiltration' of education fascinating and unfortunately relevant.
One big discontinuity you see between the mid-century fascist movements and more prominent far-right ideologues today is the reluctance to criticise capitalism. The characters in this book tend to think of Marxism and Capitalism as a duel pronged attack on tradition and nation by a Jewish conspiracy. Whilst conspiracy discourse today has by no means shed itself of references to "finance" or "bankers", almost universally code for Jews, but the reluctance to explicitly criticise capitalism like the Italian, German, and Spanish fascists movements did, is interesting.
Good resource. I need to read more about Spanish modern history. Also thinking about reading some more on current conspiracist movements in the new year.
That said this book was really good. I've studied and written on both political disinformation and contemporary far-right movements and so this topic wasn't entirely foreign to me except in terms of the Spanish context and so the primary utility I found was as a point of comparison with current day conspiracist thought and far-right ideology. The book is a mix of short biographical chapters on major propagandists and military figures of the horrible soup of the Spanish extreme-right during the civil war and subsequent Franco regime. I did find that the biographical nature of the book, especially regarding the military folks, pulled against the main topics being addressed, requiring long digressions into the military manoeuvres of the war and the lurid details of the lives of Spain's fascists. Regardless, I found it very useful and it helped me think a lot about how extreme-right conspiracism, anti-communism, and anti-semitism have shifted over time.
Firstly, the absolute, feverish, paranoid anti-semitism literally never changes. As much as far-right movements shift and mould their message to the current day, the anti-semitism is a near constant.
I also found very interesting the sections talking about the way in which Marxism is construed as foreign or Anti-Spanish. This obviously has great overlap with the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy theories prominent in the Third Reich. It's always interesting to me how fascist movements attempt to rewrite the origins of Marxist though as something fundamentally non-Western. It's a discourse that get's replicated today in the supposed Marxist-Postmodern alliance that many of the hard-right believe is destroying "Western Culture". It probably doesn't need pointing out that both Marxism, a modernist, industrial philosophy deeply rooted within classical political economy and post-modernism, a reaction to Enlightenment philosophy, by a group of largely French philosophers are both (checking my map) deeply Western. Furthermore, I found the sections on the obsession with Jewish, Marxist, Secular 'infiltration' of education fascinating and unfortunately relevant.
One big discontinuity you see between the mid-century fascist movements and more prominent far-right ideologues today is the reluctance to criticise capitalism. The characters in this book tend to think of Marxism and Capitalism as a duel pronged attack on tradition and nation by a Jewish conspiracy. Whilst conspiracy discourse today has by no means shed itself of references to "finance" or "bankers", almost universally code for Jews, but the reluctance to explicitly criticise capitalism like the Italian, German, and Spanish fascists movements did, is interesting.
Good resource. I need to read more about Spanish modern history. Also thinking about reading some more on current conspiracist movements in the new year.
July 26, 2022
Paul Preston es un historiador que siempre me gusta leer cuando tengo algo de tiempo libre, y siempre aprovecho el verano para leerlo. EN está ocasión el libro habla de la ideología del bando sublevado durante la Guerra Civil Española, y como esta ideología se fue fraguando en los años anteriores. Después de leer muchos de sus otros libros, muchos de los datos que relata son conocidos, o por lo menos me sonaban. En está ocasión decide ir haciendo un capítulo por cada personaje que considera relevante dentro de la formación de la ideología del franquismo, o de ese conjunto de ideas embrolladas.
Hay personajes que no conocía como el padre Tusquets, José María Peman o Gonzalo de Aguilera, y los que me ha interesado conocer, y su participación en este proceso. Luego otros como Mola, Queipo de Llano son conocidos, pero me han quedado escasos.
También hecho de menos un poco más de atención al Coronel Vallejo Najera, Serrano Suñer, Millan Astray o el propio Fanjul. Pero a Preston le queda mucho por escribir y lo dejara para otro libro.
Sinceramente me gsuto, me fue muy intersante y ameno de leer.
Hay personajes que no conocía como el padre Tusquets, José María Peman o Gonzalo de Aguilera, y los que me ha interesado conocer, y su participación en este proceso. Luego otros como Mola, Queipo de Llano son conocidos, pero me han quedado escasos.
También hecho de menos un poco más de atención al Coronel Vallejo Najera, Serrano Suñer, Millan Astray o el propio Fanjul. Pero a Preston le queda mucho por escribir y lo dejara para otro libro.
Sinceramente me gsuto, me fue muy intersante y ameno de leer.
May 7, 2022
No és el millor llibre de Paul Preston. Sembla fet una mica a corre-cuita, amb material procedent d'altres recerques, i la traducció de vegades grinyola, hi ha coses que no acaben de quadrar. Amb tot, és un text certament interessant que mostra el nivell pervers i patològic de molts dels participants en el cop d'estat de 1936. Hi ha algun personatge que ha quedat fora del llibre, com Ernesto Giménez Caballero, però la galeria dels horrors és força completa i retrata bé la vilesa moral de determinats elements de l'exèrcit, l'església catòlica i l'aristocràcia. Potser va sent hora d'escriure una contrahistòria, mostrar que la història podia haver anat d'una altra manera si altres militars, altres sacerdots i altres aristòcrates s'haguessin unit per lluitar contra la foscor dels golpistes.
July 10, 2023
Very informative account of the minds the minds that helped inspire the Coup that set off the Spanish Civil War & much of Franco’s reign (though this was tempered by his desire to normalise relations with the western allies after his Axis allies defeat). That being said the book’s layout could’ve used some tweaking, I’m not a huge fan of long chapters that don’t provide logical points to stop mid way through. The timelines are also occasionally slightly confused with characters/events alluded to as if they’ve already been introduced only for it to happen a few pages later. The books thesis is sound & there’s a lot of interesting information about the era but sheer stream of continuos information can be a slog at times.
January 24, 2024
Interesting view of how the military coup which started the Spanish Civil War was justified by a propaganda campaign to convince Spaniards that their country was under threat from a cabal of Jews, Freemasons and Bolsheviks/Communists. The book focused on six key figures responsible for proliferating this ‘fake news’ and carrying out atrocities.
The book itself deserves 5* but I only gave it 4* because it was too detailed for me - with just a general interest, and I found it a bit of a slog to get through.
The book itself deserves 5* but I only gave it 4* because it was too detailed for me - with just a general interest, and I found it a bit of a slog to get through.
February 22, 2024
Una molt bona lectura per entendre els artífexs del discurs antisemita que Franco va desenvolupar durant els inicis del seu mandat a Espanya. Deixa, en breus biografies, remarcats el comportament i pensament d'uns personatges els noms dels quals no s'han d'oblidar: Mauricio Carlavilla, Joan Tusquets, José María Pemán, Gonzalo de Aguilera, Emilio Mola, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, i molts altres que van facilitar i creure en el "contubernio judeomasónico-bolchevique". No ha estat la meva lectura preferida de l'any, però si et va la història paga la pena.
March 8, 2025
El Alzamiento, la Guerra Civil y la dictadura fue dirigida por un puñado de militares y pseudointelectuales resentidos e incultos.
Es curioso observar paralelismos en muchos de los actuales dirigentes de la extrema derecha en España. Bajo una supuesta aparencia más fina, más comedida, esconden el mismo odio visceral a todo lo que se aleje de su reduccionista y pobre idea de lo que es España.
👏🏻 Un descomunal trabajo de investigación de Paul Preston, que se ha zampado más de 100 libros y una documentación extensísima como demuestran las 120 páginas de notas y bibliografia 😅
Es curioso observar paralelismos en muchos de los actuales dirigentes de la extrema derecha en España. Bajo una supuesta aparencia más fina, más comedida, esconden el mismo odio visceral a todo lo que se aleje de su reduccionista y pobre idea de lo que es España.
👏🏻 Un descomunal trabajo de investigación de Paul Preston, que se ha zampado más de 100 libros y una documentación extensísima como demuestran las 120 páginas de notas y bibliografia 😅
April 6, 2022
El pitjor assaig de Preston, en la meva opinió.
El llibre sembla fet per aprofitar restes d'investigacions fetes per a d'altres obres anteriors. El resultat és una col·lecció de biografies de personatges macabres, sàdics i psicòpates propers a la figura de Franco, que només tenen en comú alguna referència al "contubernio" en les seves excrecions literàries.
En definitiva, un fil conductor molt feble i unes conclusions impròpies - i fetes a la carrera - d'un autor de la talla de Preston.
El llibre sembla fet per aprofitar restes d'investigacions fetes per a d'altres obres anteriors. El resultat és una col·lecció de biografies de personatges macabres, sàdics i psicòpates propers a la figura de Franco, que només tenen en comú alguna referència al "contubernio" en les seves excrecions literàries.
En definitiva, un fil conductor molt feble i unes conclusions impròpies - i fetes a la carrera - d'un autor de la talla de Preston.
August 27, 2022
Como siempre, es un deber leer a Preston. Otros de sus libros son mucho más sobrios en opiniones, pero es que también son necesarias para juzgar los hechos históricos, debido al alto contenido e información reaccionaria que circula, en una realidad donde una opinión de cualquiera se convierte en proclama y fake news, tenemos que volver a mirar a gente rigurosa y honesta en su trabajo.
April 1, 2024
DNF. Bit of a slog with repeating points and very plain language.
Knuckle heads angry with Jews and communists and decide to wind people up and over take the government. The author makes little effort to differentiate many of the events and you wonder if you've heard this part already.
Knuckle heads angry with Jews and communists and decide to wind people up and over take the government. The author makes little effort to differentiate many of the events and you wonder if you've heard this part already.
March 11, 2022
Brutal. Imprescindible para que la memoria respete a la historia.
May 28, 2022
Fantástica obra histórica, que te hace ver como eran aquellos personajes dominantes franquistas antes y después de la guerra civil. Todo lo que expresa en autor está superdemostrado
May 12, 2023
Excelente lectura, que mejoraría si la redacción fuera un poco más breve
April 25, 2024
Shoutout to Paul Preston for carrying my research essay 🫡. This book was very well written and structured.
May 18, 2024
Magnífica obra del hispanista P. Preston. Minuciosamente elaborada, constituye un retrato de los protagonistas de la barbarie que asoló España.
June 22, 2024
The author assumes a prior knowledge of pre-civil war Spain. A short chronology at the beginning would be a welcomed addition to future editions.
February 3, 2025
Solid book, but the reader could do with a strong grounding in the Spanish Civil War and associated ideas
January 23, 2024
Nunca defrauda Paul Preston. Este libro representa un excelente documento para entender las verdaderas razones que hicieron caer a la IIR
July 7, 2024
Demented Ravings
Heading is ‘Demented Ravings’ and does not refer to Preston’s magisterial tome but to the innermost thoughts of Franco and the rebels. As per, the RC church is up to its neck in it. Although Franco was clearly bad I don’t let the republicans off either. They slaughtered 6,500 priests and would have obliterated the RC church. As a Protestant myself one would think I would welcome that. I wouldn’t. Of the two unappealing sides in the Spanish Civil War on balance I think Franco was a better outcome. Not much better but by a whisker better.
Heading is ‘Demented Ravings’ and does not refer to Preston’s magisterial tome but to the innermost thoughts of Franco and the rebels. As per, the RC church is up to its neck in it. Although Franco was clearly bad I don’t let the republicans off either. They slaughtered 6,500 priests and would have obliterated the RC church. As a Protestant myself one would think I would welcome that. I wouldn’t. Of the two unappealing sides in the Spanish Civil War on balance I think Franco was a better outcome. Not much better but by a whisker better.
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