Paul Preston

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Preston is a British historian, working in the London School of Economics, specialising in Spanish history, in particular the Spanish Civil War, which he has studied for more than 30 years. A few years ago, he published an updated version of his book The Spanish Civil War, where he describes the final victory of Francisco Franco's troops as "an international war that happened in Spanish fields, that wasn't decided in Spain but in the hands of the great powers." Perhaps the novelty of this book is the idea that "the presence of Italy in Spain wasn't by accident, as one could consider the German troops, but it must be understood as a non-formal declaration of war from Italy to the Republican Government."

He has also produced an authoritative biography of Franco. Preston is quoted as saying that "Franco wasn't a fascist, but something much worse, as he brought the African mentality of repression and coldness, and treated the Spanish the same way as the natives of Morocco." He has also recently published a biography of King Juan Carlos I.