Javier Rodrigo – författare

In this highly important book, Javier Rodrigo examines the role of Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939.Fascist Italy’s intervention in the Spanish Civil War to provide material, strategic, and diplomatic assistance led to Italy becoming a belligerent in the conflict. Following the unsuccessful military coup of July 1936 and the insurgents’ subsequent failure to take Madrid, the Corps of Voluntary Troops (CTV, Corpo Truppe Volontarie ) was created—in the words of an Italian fascist anthem—to ‘liberate Spain’, usher in a ‘new History’, ‘make the peoples oppressed by the Reds smile again’, and ‘build a fascist Europe’. Far from being insignificant or trivial, the intervention of Fascist Italy and Italian fascists on Spanish soil must be seen as one of the key aspects which contribute to the Spanish conflict’s status as an epitome of the twentieth century. Drawing on sources ranging from ministerial orders to soldiers’ diaries, this book reconstructs the evangelisation of fascism in Spain.This book is the first important study on Fascist Italy’s role in the conflict to appear in English in over 45 years. It examines Italian intervention from angles unfamiliar to English-speaking readers and will be useful to students of history and scholars interested in twentieth-century Europe, fascism, and the international dimension of the Spanish Civil War.

In this highly important book, Javier Rodrigo examines the role of Fascist Italy in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939.Fascist Italy’s intervention in the Spanish Civil War to provide material, strategic, and diplomatic assistance led to Italy becoming a belligerent in the conflict. Following the unsuccessful military coup of July 1936 and the insurgents’ subsequent failure to take Madrid, the Corps of Voluntary Troops (CTV, Corpo Truppe Volontarie ) was created—in the words of an Italian fascist anthem—to ‘liberate Spain’, usher in a ‘new History’, ‘make the peoples oppressed by the Reds smile again’, and ‘build a fascist Europe’. Far from being insignificant or trivial, the intervention of Fascist Italy and Italian fascists on Spanish soil must be seen as one of the key aspects which contribute to the Spanish conflict’s status as an epitome of the twentieth century. Drawing on sources ranging from ministerial orders to soldiers’ diaries, this book reconstructs the evangelisation of fascism in Spain.This book is the first important study on Fascist Italy’s role in the conflict to appear in English in over 45 years. It examines Italian intervention from angles unfamiliar to English-speaking readers and will be useful to students of history and scholars interested in twentieth-century Europe, fascism, and the international dimension of the Spanish Civil War.

Fascism was a distinct movement in European history that left deep scars across the continent, but the term 'fascist' is now more broadly applied to those on the political right, especially the new populists who have seized power across much of the globe in recent years. Although most far-right populists vocally disavow historic fascism, many critics see worrying parallels with the earlier movement. Could we be witnessing a return to the fascist politics of Mussolini, Franco and Hitler?Maximiliano Fuentes Codera and Javier Rodrigo have written both an assessment of the current crisis of democracy and a brief history of fascism and far-right populism around the world. By illuminating the historical record, this book will help readers better understand the distinctive, twenty-first-century challenges faced by our democracies.

Is Spain really still tied - culturally, politically, and emotionally - to the dictator Francisco Franco? What was (and is) his place in the public imaginary? What remains today of the man and his legacy?This book examines the public image of Franco and the social construction(s) of his public biography over four different periods: the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the post-civil war period (1939-1949), the rest of the dictatorship (1950-1975), and the democratic period and recent times (1975-2020). Delving into biography, narratives, and public and political motivations, it analyses the role that the idea of Franco has played and continues to play in contemporary Spain. It argues that the multiplicity of narratives that have existed in Spain and abroad regarding the figure of Franco are closely related to both the rhetoric and images generated by those in power and a sort of popular 'banal Franco' which takes in multiple stereotypes. This latter concept is central to understanding not only Franco's importance in contemporary Spain but also the fervent allegiance to his figures by a substantial part of Spanish society. Providing a complex picture of how the public image of the dictator has been constructed over time, the book addresses how ordinary Spaniards have imagined Franco and what their sources for doing so were.

Themes include the idea of rapid warfare as a symbol of fascism, total war, the role of modern technology, the transfer of war cultures between regimes, anti-partisan warfare as a key feature, and the contingent nature and limits of fascist warfare.