Franco

February 11, 2002
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.

March 1, 2002
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 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2002
In recent years, a revisionist view of Francisco Francohas emerged. Instead of the strutting Fascist dictator, this view portrays Franco as conservative and authoritarian but repelled by the racism and violence that characterized the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. Furthermore, Franco helped rescue Jews and provided Spain with decades of stability, making possible a smooth transition to democracy. Now historian Hodges counters that benign portrait. She views Franco as a bitter, deeply insecure figure who projected his own personal hatreds onto a broader political and social landscape. The supposed legacy of stability he left to Spain actually included an economy warped by inflationary pressures, great unemployment, and critical unresolved issues with political and ethnic factions. This is not a balanced view; Franco was not a particularly likeable man, and Hodges clearly does not like him. As a result, she occasionally engages in unwarranted and unfair speculation over Franco's motives for political decisions. Still, much of this portrait seems credible, and Hodges provides some interesting insights into an unpleasant but important historical figure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)