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General Francisco Franco came to prominence during the days of David Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson and was able to cling to absolute political power until his death in 1975. Over his fifty-year career, he became one of the four dictators who changed the face of Europe during the twentieth century.
Franco joined the Spanish Army when he was barely fifteen years old. In 1926 he became the youngest general in Europe and, driven by an astonishing sense of his own greatness, was recognized as sole military commander of the Nationalist zone during the Spanish Civil War. His ambition was always to hold on to the power that he had secured. In practice, this meant winning the Spanish Civil War and surviving the fall of the fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini and the international isolation that followed their defeat.
But behind the military heroics and dexterous political footwork lay an insecure and vengeful man, wracked by contradictory impulses. Although fueled by a single-minded determination to succeed, he was full of self-doubt. A bold and sometimes inspirational soldier in Africa, he became an indecisive, hesitant military commander during the Civil War. Filled with a burning conviction that his destiny was bound up with the medieval kings of Spain and God Himself, he appeared shy, withdrawn, and humble. Ruthlessly intent on wiping out all political opposition, he denied heatedly that he was a dictator. A stubborn man, he could be remarkably flexible when it came to safeguarding his power.
This psychological biography considers Franco's mental state, as well as his political motivation. In doing so, it succeeds admirably in getting under the skin of Europe's most enduring dictator.
- Sales Rank: #3305066 in Books
- Published on: 2002-04-30
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.64" h x 1.14" w x 6.18" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Hodges (the wife of Paul Preston, another Franco biographer) has written an engaging and highly accessible account of one of the 20th century's most durable dictators. The diminutive and contradictory Francisco Franco (1892-1975), who as a youth had seemed such an unlikely leader, rose to power with the military support of Hitler and Mussolini in an atmosphere of brutal civil war. Orwellian repression, economic slump and widespread corruption marked his lengthy reign. How did this "deeply flawed individual" remain at Spain's helm for nearly 40 years? Hodges's slim volume is an attempt to explain the "political, personal, psychological and social influences" behind his success. In 1907, as the teenage Franco joined the army, his father left his strict Catholic wife to move in with another woman; this act of abandonment, Hodges argues, instilled a lifelong yearning for order in Franco. As a fearless young soldier in colonial Morocco, Franco became a national hero, and by 33 he was a general. When he challenged the Republican government in 1936, he triggered a civil war as well as gaining aid from fascist Italy and Germany that helped him to win it. During WWII, Franco, displaying an opportunistic "elasticity of ideological convictions," played both sides of the fence, and after the war, despite his shocking human rights record, he was grudgingly accepted into the anticommunist bloc. A true survivor, he held onto power until 1975. Through it all, Hodges writes, he exhibited a marked talent for self-delusion and a "ruthless obsession with his own survival." This brief, well-written biography may not break any new ground, but it should appeal to both the general history reader and to those with an interest in the Spanish Civil War.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Independent scholar Hodges focuses on Franco's personal life in conjunction with the circumstances of Spanish history as a means of understanding the dictator's mind and, therefore, his exercise of power. Hodges regards Franco as a deeply flawed individual who projected his familial trauma outward. Franco along with the military, the Falangists, and the Spanish Catholic Church was attempting to create an idealized fascist world that would shut out modernity. Despite massive corruption and ruinous economic policies, he was able to stay in power as a result of his own political skill, his opponents' incompetence, and Cold War politics. Although Hodges attempts to stick to available sources, she admits that much is speculative. She has read extensively on the history of totalitarianism, but her comparisons to other fascist dictators are sometimes too simplistic. Lovers of biography will enjoy this book, as Hodges explains the contours of Spanish history without losing focus, while those uncomfortable with psycho-history will be less pleased. For another full account of Franco's life, see the biography by Hodges's husband, Paul Preston (Franco: A Biography, Basic, 1994). Recommended for all public and academic libraries. Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
"A bold analysis of the psychological springs of Franco's life as a military leader and then dictator." --Rimes Literary Supplement
"This absorbing biography portrays a self-doubter who compensates for his deficiencies with vengefulness, vindictiveness, vituperio, and other monstrosities." --The Herald [U.K.]
"A readable and interesting book." --Sunday Independent [Dublin]
"This volume is a strong contribution to the study of one of the middle-rank dictators of the twentieth century. His likes will not seen in Spain again." --Irish Times
Most helpful customer reviews
26 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
POOR
By A Customer
Previous reviewers are right on the mark concerning the poor quality of this book. My criticisms with this book are primarily twofold.
1.Hodges, like her husband Paul Preston another Franco biographer, seem bent on attempting to psychoanalyze every pronouncement, decision and action ever made by Franco. Psycho history, whether from the left or the right, is generally bad history in that it leads the historian into a very ambiguous area of interpretation. This type of history becomes particularly dangerous when the historian, like Hodges, possesses a visceral dislike for her subject. That is certainly the case here.
2. While Hodges possess a firm grasp of figures, dates and personalities, She fails, in my view, to capture the quintessentially Spanish nature of the Franco. Above all else, Franco was an uncompromisng nationalist who displayed the unique Spanish conciousness of tradition, conservative Catholicism and political expediency. Franco would as quickly manipulate the Right as he would crush the Left if he thought it would advance Spain. One has only to trace his relationship with Nazi Germany or even the Spanish Falange as cases in point. Like many Spaniards of all classes in the 1930s, he could be critical of the institutional heirarchy of the Catholic Church. What he and many Spaniards couldn't tolerate and branded "anti-Spain" was the indiscriminate killing of priests and sacking of churches by the extreme Left. Yes, Franco was certainly no democrat and he could casually brutalize any opposition, particularly during and immediatly after the Civil War. But both Franco and the many interested readers are more deserving of a sober, balanced treatment than this diatribe delivers.
24 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Franco: a concise biography
By M. Halls
How many thousand ways can a book irritate you?
This took me near the limit. Before I criticise, I appreciated the fact, albeit in part borrowed from Hodge's partner, that there was a genuine understanding of Spain and Franco from a historical perspective. So plus points for a genuine feeling of accuracy in terms of dates and places.
But irritate it did.
Reasons are several. Mostly it is clear that the author dislikes -- very deeply -- the subject of the biography. Hardly a good start to an informed criticism. Especially one that aims to open up the psychology of the man. Look for a word of praise for Franco and the best you will find are epithets that end up looking bland like "brave". Look for words of disgust and it's difficult where to stop.
(And as an aside why does every sentence seem to have an adjective or adverb in it? Do we have to say personal when we talk about "Franco's personal animosity"? Leisure being enforced, enjoyment being physical, people are deeply impressed, profoundly reassured etc. And why the persistent cliches, sometimes convoluted, of "strutting the international stage", "dizzy ascent up the heirarchical ladder" "cold wind of reality was, however, blowing hard"?)
At best this mostly one-sided view of Franco -- and I am no admirer of him at all -- reduced this to pyschohistory babble. At least be impartial if you're trying to explain someone's thinking was my conclusion.
The book wasn't helped by a mass of allusions to other writers.
To quote somebody else, even a husband here, is no great proof of anything. Surely this is superficial scholarship when you quote commentators rather than sources? And I for one wondered how phrases like "according to Norma Dixon" (who he/she?) to name one of several could have passed through the sub-editing process.
So is this book meant to be an academic one -- it is stuffed full of footnotes -- then why the baby explanation of Freud's Oedipus complex?
The answer is that it doesn't know. It teeters between the two. So, at its worst you are presented with familial/psychological reasons for all the defects of Spain's most bloody dictator but no understanding of what it felt like to be in the man's presence. Sadly more so when we look at the early years on Franco's way up from being a young soldier.
Hundreds of commentators said that he was a charismatic man -- phrases like "an aura of silence and power" abound from quite early on. One biographer even said he had never seen a man with such extraordinary bladder control in that he could remain immovable at his desk for hours on end!
For this reason it was a shame that Franco's own account of his military life in Morocco is glossed over in favour of emphasising his own (and deliberately fictionalised) account of the same story.
This book is not irredeemably bad. Far from it. The writing, despite its horrendous love of qualifiers, is good. There is a real sense that the author knows what she is talking about and for someone wanting to find out about Franco, this is arguably an able primer.
But sad to say, a bit indistinguished for all that.
24 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Concise is Good
By Catherine A. McClarey
The author is the wife of Paul Preston, a British leftist scholar of the Spanish Civil War who wrote his own biography of Franco a few years ago. From everything I can see from this book Ms. Hodges largely relies on her husband's research. Her main contribution, I believe she is a psychiatrist, is to attempt to psychoanalyze Franco. Thus motivations for various actions of Franco are attributed to conflicts with his father, feelings of inadequacy and sexual insecurities. This technique of course gives an author freedom to say virtually anything about any historical figure since internal motivations are rarely known based upon external evidence and the whole process is often speculation dressed up in psychological jargon.
The author makes no attempt to hide her biases: she despises Franco. Judging from several snide comments in the book I also assume that she doesn't think much of the Catholic Church.
Inconvenient facts are completely ignored. While highlighting Nationalist atrocities during the Spanish Civil War, she completely ignores Republican atrocities. The author notes the support of much of the Church for Franco while not mentioning the massacre of tens of thousands of priests, brothers, sisters and lay Catholics at the beginning of the War which propelled the Church into the arms of the Nationalists. This is polemic and not history.
The only virtue of this book is that it is concise. It has nothing of value to say about Franco or his times. Avoid this book unless, like me, you just have to have every English language work on the Spanish Civil War.
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