Politics of Modern Spain Author:Frank Edward Manuel THE POLITICS OF MODERN SPAIN BY FRANK E. MANUEL FOREWORD BT FRITZ MORSTEIN MARX FIRST EDITION McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. NEW TOBK AND LONDON 1938 COPYRIGHT, 1938, BY THE MCGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. FEINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMEBICA All rights reserved. This book, or in any form without permission of the publishers. To THE WOMAN WHO ... more »SPAN FOREWORD Until the outbreak of the present Civil War Spain was known primarily for her past. To most contemporaries hers was the museum appeal. The picture of her political realities remained dim. Since then a flood of interpretations of the Spanish tragedy has added confusion to dimness. Few of the current interpretations aspire to meet the acute need for an appraisal both based on facts and looking beyond facts. This book does. When its author took leave of his academic work in order to help develop the educational program of the American labor movement, he had already established himself in the minds of his students as an authority on the history of the French working class. Before his extensive research on this topic was brought to a close, Dr. Manuel responded to the opportunity offered him to survey the political scene in turbulent Spain. His findings placed in broad historical perspective are here presented. But to point to the authors command of the relevant data would alone not suffice to suggest the character of his analysis. A piece of brilliant writing, it is at the same time compact and swiftly moving. A political study hi the best sense, it combines the features of social, economic, and cultural inquiry in a forceful synthesis. A document pregnant with personal conviction, it testifies no less strongly to the spirit of scholarship. Though impatient with ecclesiastical shortcomings, Dr. Manuel is not without a faith. Generous hi his invective for the intellectuals, he yet invokes the freedom of intellect. Despite his exorcism of fascist ideology, he does not hesitate to turn the spotlight on the deficiencies of leftist Spanish leaders. To the student of revolutionary movements and revolutionary technique, Spain, rather than Russia, is becoming the standard laboratory. Dr. Manuels book makes this laboratory widely available. The formulae evolved by fate and human cunning in a long series of coups and countercoups are now being put to a final test in the Peoples Front experiment on the one hand and in Francos one-party venture on the other. El Caudillos new FOREWORD National Party on whose Grand Council no less than three women have found seats is thus far an organization only in the formal sense. The traditionalist elements in its membership still respect the insignia of bygone days, while most of the Falangist rnilitiamen have become more pronounced in their espousal of the fascist brand of a peasant-minded social revolution. To what extent the Catholic Church will be able to cope with the novel slogans of a Spanish Phalanx under German-Italian tutelage remains to be seen. Nor have all cleavages been bridged over in the loyalist camp. Whatever the outcome of the Civil War, three facts seem indis putable. First, as the disastrous conflict drags on, each day will intensify the division of the nation against itself and make the task of reconstruction more formidable. Second, reconciliation cannot be inaugurated by the sword. Thus the ultimate disinte gration of one or the other army of liberty is bound to beget a reign of terror and vengeance hailed by the victorious side as an indispensable purgatory. And third, a reborn Spain will be a serious potential threat to the status quo in the Old World. She might well share the destiny of other late arrivals by nolens volens becoming a major European headache. FRITZ MORSTEIN MARX. ADAMS HOUSE, HABVABD UNIVERSITY. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to the authors friends, Dr. Norton E. Long and Mr. Edwin Mims, Jr., for a careful reading of the proofs to Professors Edith Fishtine and Miguel Antonio Pena and Mr. Jose K. P...« less
ISBN-13: 9780837154619 ISBN-10: 0837154618 Pages:207 Edition:New ed of 1938 ed Rating: