HIST1275 - Spain: From Civil War to Post-Francoism, 1930-2020

This course will focus on three moments in the history of Spain that are fundamental to understanding the constant political debates in our current societies about how a country should remember and commemorate its history. The reality is that we live in a moment in which the past is more present than ever. The debates, sometimes violent, in the USA about Confederate monuments and symbols; the publication of critical comparative studies, such as the extraordinary work of Susan Neiman Learning from the Germans; or the considerable number, every day larger, of works on historical memory in many countries and regions, from Germany to Argentina, the former Yugoslavia, Japan, to the United States and Spain. In Spain, debates about the past and how the country remembers and celebrates have become central to struggles about government and the future of democracy. This course is structured into three parts. Part I centers on the Spanish CIVIL WAR, 1936-1939. Part II will focus on the consequences of the Civil War (1939-1975), both from internal and international perspectives. Part III will pay attention to the period 1975-2022, paying particular attention to debates about how the country should remember the Civil War, what type of sites of memory to conserve and build, and the importance and political and social effects of several essential laws - the 1977 Amnesty Law and the 2007 and 2022 Historical Memory Laws.