Rolando Attack and the History of ETA

Through a rigorous examination of previously inaccessible judicial and police archives, this book reconstructs the bombing of the Rolando cafeteria in Madrid, the first indiscriminate massacre committed by the terrorist organization ETA, which claimed 13 lives and left over 70 injured.The authors argue that this attack represented a decisive turning point, triggering ETA’s definitive split and fundamentally altering the course of late Francoism. They contextualize the Spanish case within the broader European trends of the era, drawing parallels with the Provisional IRA’s campaigns in the United Kingdom and Italy’s "strategy of tension.” The book focuses specifically on the individual stories of the victims, giving them a level of prominence they have lacked until now. This contributes both to the necessary restoration of their memory and to the demythologization of ETA and its followers.This book is essential reading for scholars and students of terrorism studies, modern Spanish history, and political violence, as well as non-specialist readers interested in the dark legacy of terrorism, both for Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy and for Europe in general.