Asian Studies
Contemporary Spanish Studies
Critical Inventions
Demographic Developments
First Nations & Colonial Encounter
Latin American Studies
Peace Politics in the Middle East
Religious Beliefs & Practices
Spanish History
Spirituality in Education

L’Espagne Républicaine
French Policy and Spanish Republicanism in Liberated France

In the Series:
Studies in Spanish History

David A. Messenger
David Messenger is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wyoming, USA. He received his doctorate from the University of Toronto. He has held fellowships and grants from the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s Program on Cooperation with United States Universities, and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Holocaust Educational Foundation.

“They had fought Hitler and won, they had fought Mussolini and won; but they could not defeat Franco, and refugees from Spain abounded in France. In public de Gaulle praised them as model democrats, but in private coped with US and UK foreign policy and the reality of wartime ties between de Gaulle’s government in exile and Spain. Messenger (history, U. of Wyoming) explains the complications, especially the lingering aftereffects of the war on both identity and policy. He explains the debates about what France should be and do with regard to Franco’s Spain, and he tracks chronologically from the refugee crisis and economic warfare in Spain from 1942 to 1944, the effects of Spanish republicanism in liberated France, and French politics from 1946 to 1948 that lead to France’s acceptance of Franco’s Spain.” Reference & Research Book News

This work examines the Spanish question in the context of post-war French politics and foreign policy, in particular during the period 1943–1946. The war had been fought against authoritarian fascism, yet Francisco Franco and his regime remained in power. Spanish Republican refugees in France were heralded as model democrats awaiting liberation, a liberation that France could best provide through pursuit of an antagonistic policy toward Franco. But in reality, members of Charles de Gaulle’s government-in-exile had developed ties to Spain during the war in conjunction with the United States and Great Britain.
… France was in the midst of renewal and redefinition, a process with both national and international aspects. The importance of the Spanish case in that process has been neglected by historians. With significant differences, there was an important parallel to the debates that engaged France during the Spanish Civil War. Different visions of France and its role in Europe competed with one another as Spanish policy was debated.
… Based on research from unpublished sources from state and private archives in Paris, Madrid, Toulouse, London and Washington, this book is essential reading for Spanish and French History scholars.

	List of Contents to follow

Publication Details