The Good Fight and Good History: the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

Historiography of the Spanish Civil War was for years impossible inside Spain, and outside the country it was dominated by sweeping, synthetic works that said little about the lived experience of the conflict and its aftermath. Even in the decades after Franco's death, Spain was slow to begin writing the story of the vanquished, having accepted the terms of the transition: to move forward and forget. Today, history and memory and their relationship have become topics of daily newspaper articles as mass graves are dug up and the descendants of the combatants at long last discuss the war. This article addresses the problem of how to create a new historiography of an event that has been saddled with oblivion, repression, ideological baggage, and, now, personal reminiscence.