Spain, 1808-1975

Oxford History of Modern Europe

by Raymond Carr

The first edition of this book was published in 1966. It became a standard work as a survey of economic, social, and political origins of modern Spain leading up to the apparent defeat of the liberal tradition with General Franco's victory in the Civil War. Since 1966 there has been a revolution in Spanish historiography. The more modern history of Spain, a neglected, even dangerous field, virtually unexplored, has since come into its own. In this edition, Raymond Carr has added new chapters that examine Francoism, its political system, and the society it sustained. He brings the story up to the death of General Franco in 1975, and in an extensive bibliographical essay considers the recent contribution of Spanish scholars to the period 1808-1939.

Genres: History, Spain, Nonfiction, Spanish History, Spanish Civil War, 20th Century

888 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Sir Raymond Albert Maillard Carr FBA FRHS FRSL, known as Raymond Carr, was an English historian specializing in the history of Spain, Latin America, and Sweden who was Warden of St Antony's College, Oxford, from 1968 to 1987.

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve only read 5 chapters of the book, but that was my objective so I’ll review those now.

I will likely read the rest of the book, the rating I’ve given explains that.

Raymond Carr’s Spain 1808-1975 is an academic history of Spain through the years cited.

The chapters I read were not the first five, but these:

IX. The Restoration and the Disaster, 1874-98

X. The Foundations of a Modern Economy

XI. Society, 1870-1930

XII. Regeneration and Disintegration, 1898-1923

XIII. The Protesters, 1898-1923

Each chapter is further divided into from three to six sub-topics, listed with their own titles and page numbers in the Table of Contents.


General comments

As can be seen from the titles, the book is not a strict chronological telling of events and personalities which shaped Spain’s travels through the roughly fifty year period which I read about. There’s a lot of backtracking. Rather Carr gives us a history built on a structure of “grand themes” (well, maybe not so grand, but I like the term).

The structure, not unique to this history book of course, I found to be both a strength and a weakness. The strength is that it unifies subtopics of a theme in a natural way; the weakness, which is especially notable when the reader is pretty ignorant of everything in the book (like I was), is that there are unavoidably many instances where brief mentions of people, events, societal “movements”, and such, are needed to fully document the current theme, but are only dealt with in full in a different chapter.

Carr helps out in this respect by frequently footnoting that a topic just spoken of (out of the blue) is dealt with in more detail in another section, with pages given. And speaking of footnotes, there are a lot of them, which is good I think. Even better, the footnotes are found at the bottom of the current page, maximally convenient.

There are probably two-three footnotes on the average page, sometimes twice that many. Some are simple references to secondary sources (which are usually books in Spanish); others are more extensive footnotes consisting of a few sentences delving into more detail than Carr wanted to go into in his main narrative – rather like this spoiler, and the way I use spoilers often. Come to think of it, when I used to write papers in college I would write those lengthy footnotes for the same reason..

Anyway, the longer footnotes I usually found interesting, and the shorter ones are easily glanced at and either noted or dismissed.

There’s a very detailed index to the book, which is always helpful.


What’s in the chapters I read?

I’ve tried to keep this pretty brief, just some snapshots. But if you don’t care, don’t bother to enter the

IX. The Restoration and the Disaster, 1874-98

The “Restoration” is really introduced near the end of chapter VIII. It refers to the final act of the “Glorious Revolution” of 1868 which deposed Queen Isabella II from the Spanish throne, and resulted in 1873 in the First Spanish Republic. In 1875 the Republic crumbled and the Bourbon Restoration placed Isabella’s son Alfonso XII on the Spanish throne.

The last two subsections of the chapter I found particularly interesting. The first of these, “Caciquismo and its Consequences”, describes how the political system of Spain came to operate after the Restoration. Basically a two party system, they took turns governing (with the approval of the monarchy, of course). When it was time for a change of government (determined by various back-door political schemes) the monarch would dissolve the government, elections would be held, and the party that had been “out” was voted “in” by massive rigging of the polls. Wait a while, stir, and repeat.

The final subsection is about the “Cuban Disaster” which unfolded in the years 1895-98. The Spanish-American war, fought briefly near the end of this period, cost Spain the last remnants of her colonial empire (the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba). Spain's navy, in the space of two months, was annihilated, first in the Philippines in May, then the Atlantic squadron off Santiago (Antilles) on July 3. Carr calls these "the two most complete naval disasters of modern times” and states that “It was the public destruction of the image of Spain as a great power which turned defeat (for the Spanish) into moral disaster."

Carr claims that the war was forced onto the unwilling President McKinley by U.S. "public opinion, now at the mercy of jingoists and idealists", following the sinking of the battleship Maine by a Spanish mine in Havana harbor.


X. The Foundations of a Modern Economy

A somewhat stultifying chapter on economics, industry and agriculture in the 1870-98 period. The third and final sub-section, Population and the Land, was the most interesting.

Much modernization was superficial … thus although Leon had electric light in 1889 it had no adequate water supply until 1950 … Inquiry after inquiry revealed wages which could not cover the day labourer’s minimum expenditure on food … The curse of these areas of semi-starvation was seasonal unemployment … Andalusia and Estremadura were … regions of shame where conditions of life were comparable only to the worst areas of Sicily and eastern Europe …

Altogether a chapter whose theme, as I recall, was not only the progress (such as it was) made towards a “modern economy”, but also the difficulty Spain had in developing such a thing, due to disagreement about what such a thing was, how such a thing could be brought about, and what role the illiterate peasantry of the country could or would play, a question which was only asked by a segment of society anyway.

XI. Society, 1870-1930

An extremely interesting chapter, the best of those I read. I’m content to let that statement stand on the evidence of the subsection titles :

1. Social Classes, 1870-1930
2. Labour Movements, 1868-1923: Anarchism and Socialism
3. Social Reform after 1890
4. The Catholic Revival, Anti-clericalism, and Education

XII. Regeneration and Disintegration, 1898-1923

This chapter tells the story of the aftereffects of the Cuban Disaster; how the monarch (Alfonso XIII) dealt with the political parties, the increasing animosity between Conservatives and the Liberal Party, the economic strains brought about by the 1914-18 War (it was a prosperous time for Spain, but many of the strains were a direct result of the prosperity – particularly inflation and labour unrest), and, in the years 1919-1923, violent social unrest in Catalonia (which resulted in a regional quasi-military dictatorship refusing to even follow directives from Madrid for a spell) and another military disaster in Morocco.

XIII. The Protesters, 1898-1923

The final chapter I read goes into more detail about the causes of the unrest and conflicts discussed in chapter XII. “Protesters” discussed include the so-called “Generation of ‘98”, the political segment clamoring for return of a Republic (repudiation of the monarchy), the Catalan Protest and Basque Nationalism, and the re-entry of the army into politics (it had never really left).

This seems like a horrible place to leave anyone reading this spoiler: hanging in the air crying “and then what?”. So I’ll conclude by relating that the next chapter, which I haven’t read but know about through concurrent reading of The Spanish Labyrinth, deals with, as its title reveals, “The Dictatorship of Prima de Rivera and the Fall of the Monarchy, 1923-31.”.

One thing I do want to relate. Spain had twelve different constitutions in the 166 years from 1812 to 1978. So in that sense at least Spain appears to have had the most unstable government in Europe throughout the 19th century.


Why did I read these chapters, and only these chapters?

My purpose was to read material about Spain before and after the First World War, to get some idea of how and why Spain stayed out of that war. So I picked these chapters which covered that period.

I learned an awful lot more than I had anticipated, but it was good to learn. The short answer to my question would be simply that Spain could have fought the War simply within its own boundaries if it had cared to. Most conservative elements in Spanish society probably would have fought on the side of Germany; the labour and leftist elements would have fought with France. So it was in everyone’s interest not to get involved, and simply reap the economic rewards of selling stuff to whoever wanted it and could receive delivery of it (which was mostly Britain and France, for obvious geographical reasons).


A note on Carr’s style

Raymond Carr has a style which at times I found just downright enchanting. He tends to construct sentences which, although they can be long and somewhat complex, really say an awful lot in as few words as possible. Some examples:

They degenerated into friendly societies, clubs to keep the workers from the pernicious influences of the tavern and the Socialists, organizations of working-class piety more concerned with the suppression of blasphemy than with the improvement of working conditions.

University education, to the student, remained a distant affair of textbooks and lectures, useful only for the acquisition of certificates needed for employment in the public services. Teachers and taught were bored.

The political cartoons of Maurism were as brilliant as its catechisms were banal and rhetorical.

It was the ‘proletariat of lawyers’, the obsession for ‘a career’ … which had produced a Spain without technical education, with a monstrous, expensive, and semi-employed bureaucracy, and with a parliament where the lawyers outweighed every other interest.

… since the parliamentary monarchy could not be renovated by the processes of effective democratic government, it was destroyed in 1923 by a soldier who had lost faith in politics and politicians. It was the European war and its after-effects which undermined the constitutional monarchy in Spain; it was the Moroccan war which destroyed it.

And finally, for I must stop –

He was successful because he caught parliamentary rule in its transition from oligarchy to democracy: the old political machine was broken, but the transition to the new political democracy envisaged by the advanced liberals had not conquered the indifference of the electorate. Not for the first nor for the last time, a general claimed that he was killing off a diseased body when he was, in fact, strangling a new birth.

Of course the problem with such pat and engaging formulations is that they can oversimplify. But Carr largely avoids this issue by providing the messy detail first, thus laying the groundwork for his charming summary.


And my summary

Should you be interested in Spanish history for Carr’s chosen period, this is both a good reference work and a usually enjoyable read. Carr has a good reputation, but one never knows about historical narrative. There are so many rival historians out there to challenge historical judgments.

[Loring Wirbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carr comes close to winning five stars for this one, discounted only because a history of such scope requires a lot of compression, which is evident in sections such as Civil War coverage. That being said, this is an Oxford History release, which almost guarantees it a good rating.

Carr is at his best when explaining how the various threads of monarchist, Carlist politics clashed with liberal and radical interests, throughout the 19th century and particularly in the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War. Carr is a good writer and weaves his stories well. He is particularly effective in describing the ways that the Catholic Church was directly responsible for keeping the nation primitive in many ways (an observation that is common to that in two histories of Italy I have been reading). Nevertheless, as Carr indicates, we can't always blame the pope for that - Too many Spaniards in rural areas wanted to be ruled by myth and authoritarianism, so the problem stemmed as much from bottom to top as from Vatican to village.

The period from Civil War to the end of the Franco years was added from the 1966 edition of this book. It is a good recap, but has a bit of a second-edition addendum feel to it. Nevertheless, Carr's coverage of modern Spain is one of the best.

[Andrés Pertierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great manual style history of Spain. I genuinely finally feel like I understand the 19th century, on a basic level, and even learned some new things about the civil war era despite having already read several books specifically on those years.

I first tried to read Carr as an undergrad and was nowhere near versed enough in Spanish history to understand it. This book assumes quite a bit of reader familiarity with Spain so do not treat this as your first foray into its history. Instead, use this as manuals like this are meant to be used, by reading on various different eras and starting with simpler intro texts, then using something like this to stitch them all together in your mind.

[Darth Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The King´s writer

Would you ever read a book about the Spanish monarchy written by the King? I guess, that you would not. Unfortunately I must tell you that The Spanish monarchy did award Raymond Carr for this work, what it means, that the Monarchy is more than happy with the content of this book.

https://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-ast...

This is very dense book, very well documented and a good starting point to be known with this historical period if you are not from Spain, if you are a monarchic and if your grandfather did support Franco. The author ignores the fact that Spain is based in at least four different nationalities inside his borders, what makes politics much more complicated than right-left, liberal-conservative, and so on. He believes that nationalist are both catalans, basques and Franco supporters. If you agree with the author, this is a book for you. Personally I did find offensive the mocking commentaries on the anarchists, even though I believe that his incompetence is well described, because if you mock them, why do not you mock the others?

The chapters dedicated to explain the Spanish society and it´s particularities, are probably the better written and those that the reader learns most, what is a bit frustrating because this book is most focus about political history, and again, is written by the King´s writer.

This books proves the claim that history is written by the victors, and in this case the victors of these 200 years are the Borbons, who have their own writer to write their story.

[Lorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is tough to read this book due to the author's dry writing style. It is recommended that one has prior knowledge of the covered era in this book as the author frequently dumps huge amounts of information on the reader in one page. Someone who doesnt have any background on spanish history will certainly be overwhelmed by this book. Nevertheless, i would still give it four stars due to the very informative nature of this book. One can really learn a lot if one has the patience to dive through this book.

[Sergi Cantón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libre que aporta una visió general de la història contemporània d'Espanya, des de la crisi de l'antic règim fins el 2008.

És una bona opció si es té alguna idea sobre aquest període però no s'és expert. Amb un nul coneixement previ, el llibre pot resultar massa farragós. En canvi, amb ja avançats coneixements, la seva lectura segurament no aportarà res de nou.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro muy bueno que recoge los conocimientos de una vida dedicada al tema. De los que vale la pena leer. El autor es de ideología socialdemócrata y se nota en sus comentarios. El único “pero” es que a veces es un poco denso.

[Tom Esquire · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book significantly oversimplifies Spanish history, often adopting a patronising tone that downplays Spain's achievements. In doing so, it subtly perpetuates the Black Legend. It also neglects the impact of the loss of Spain's overseas territories. Spain is portrayed as mediocre.

[Del Trigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno de los libros fundamentales para cimentar mi visión sobre la España contemporánea. Minucioso, objetivo, Riguroso y perfectamente documentado, Raymond Carr ofrece en esta obra colosal e imprescindible todo lo necesario para un conocimiento global sobre un país y una época.