Violence and resistance in postwar Spain (1939-1959)

• Department of History

In the framework of the Interwar History Working Group, this event features a presentation by Professor Javier Rodrigo (UAB).

Professor Rodrigo's most recent book explores the clandestine war that took place from the end of the Spanish Civil War until the late 1950s during the first stage of Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Despite Franco's victory in 1939, a 'degenerate' underground war continued for almost twenty years; a fragmented, irregular violence that was often devoid of the codes of conventional warfare. Through rigorous study of historical sources, Rodrigo recovers the experiences of men and women who organised themselves to keep the anti-Franco resistance alive in the face of state repression. His research adopts a microhistorical and social approach that combines the analysis of military, police, and judicial archives with memoirs, oral testimonies, and local sources. The methodology seeks to give voice to the silenced actors of the post-war period—peasants, women, guerrillas, and victims of reprisals, showing how violence was not only vertical (from the state towards the defeated) but also horizontal, marked by community conflicts, personal vendettas, and survival dynamics.

Please register to get a seat or to receive the ZOOM link.