El Generalisimo: A Biography of Francisco Franco

The first biography exploring both Francisco Franco’s life and the enduring legacy of Francoism

Supported by his allies, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco rose to power by defeating the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War that lasted from 1936 to 1939. Yet while Hitler and Mussolini did not survive World War II, Franco remained Spain’s strongman ruler until his death thirty years later. Perhaps more compelling than how he gained absolute power is how he retained it for so long, virtually unopposed, making him one of history’s most successful dictators.

In El Generalisimo, Giles Tremlett reveals how Franco’s ascent and extraordinary endurance stemmed from his determination to reverse history, returning Spain to its glory days as a globe-spanning empire. Fuelled by paranoia, a rigid sense of order and tradition, and a belief in the redemptive power of warfare--all the earmarks of fascism--Franco moved rapidly through the ranks in the army and took advantage of political and social upheaval to launch a revolt against democracy. He was determined to rescue Catholic Spain from a conspiracy of leftists, freemasons, liberals and their foreign or Jewish sponsors.

The Spanish Civil War served as the opening salvo of World War II, yet after it was over, despite ending up on the wrong side of history, Franco consolidated his hold on power, combining an iron grip with elements of benevolent rule to maintain popularity and weaken would-be opponents. anyone who considered opposing him. In the modernizing and democratizing postwar world, Franco was able to parlay cold war politics into a survival strategy. Those nations, including the United States, who had once denounced and dismissed him as a fascist relic actively sought him out as a partner in the fight against communism.

For over three decades Franco presided over a Spain that was rapidly urbanizing and industrializing, opening itself up to tourism. Yet while social and political upheaval swept through Western Europe, Spain remained a comparative backwater, frozen in time. Francoism had offered itself as a bulwark against instability and it proved an ideology that many Spaniards learned to live with, one that has left its mark to this day.

Giles Tremlett served as The Guardian correspondent for Spain, Portugal, and the Maghreb, and the Madrid correspondent for The Economist. He is the author of a prize-winning biography of Isabella of Castille and one of Catherine of Aragon, as well as Ghosts of Spain: Travels through Spain and its Silent Past, which was a bestseller in both the US and UK. He lives in Madrid.